LIFE 



OF 



Samuel Sullivan Cox^ 



BY HIS NEPHEWf 
WILLIAM VAN ZANpT COX, 



AND HIS FRIEND, 
MILTON HARLOW NORTHRUP. 



With Illustrations. 



M. H. NORTHRUP, PUBLISHER, 

SYRACUSE, N. Y. 

1899. 

I. 



-iAw a / 2 



vNjo^LXxrvV M^vAlxtW^Xv^ 



o ^^cv^cx^e \>-A-i2. t/V ^ 



COPYRIGHT 1898. 



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To the 

Employes of the Postal Service 

and of the 

Life Saving Service 

this biography of their champion 

is respectfully inscribed* 



PEEFACE. 



Samuel Sullivan Cox occupies an unique place 
in American history. Precisely his parallel has 
not been known. As was well said by Dr. Tal- 
mage, at his obsequies : ''It will be useless to try 
to describe to another generation who or what he 
was like. He was the first and the last of that 
kind of man." His distinguishing characteristic 
was his versatility — his many-sidedness. He had 
a marvelous faculty of adaptation. It is difficult 
to conceive of an emergency to which he would not 
have proved equal, or a situation in which he 
would not have made himself quite "at home." He 
was unquestionably a genius; but, unlike most 
men thus gifted, he was an indefatigable worker. 
He had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and 
would hesitate at no exploration in search of it. 
Men marveled not only at the extent and diversity 
of hisknowledge,but evenmoreatitsthoroughness 
and profundity. He confounded the savants them- 
selves, who could not understand when he had had 
the time or where he had found the opportunity 
to delve so deep into the mysteries of the sciences 
or philosophj^ His public life covered half his 
years; and yet if we eliminate from the calculation 
that entire public career, we shall still have, in hif; 



6 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

charming books of travel and other literary ven- 
tures, enough left to establish his title to an envi- 
able niche in the history of his country. 

His service in Congress, aggregating close upon 
three decades, covers a memorable period, or rath- 
er three memorable periods, in the nation's his- 
tory; the first, the period immediately before the 
war of the rebellion; the second, the period of the 
war itself; and the third, the period of reconstruc- 
tion. In all three he was a conspicuous figure. 
The stranger entering for the first time the gal- 
lery of the House of Representatives, and asking 
to be pointed out the men of note on the floor be- 
low, was sure, any time in those thirty years, to 
inquire, among the first, "Which is Sunset Cox?" 
His speeches, always breezy and brilliant, were 
sure to fill the vacant seats in the Hall, from the 
adjoining cloak-rooms and lobbies. It was, how- 
ever, in the heat of debate that he shone the most 
vividly. In repartee he had no superior, if equal, 
in his da}^ 

Mr. Cox's energies as a legislator were rather 
on humanitarian than strictly political lines. One 
of his eulogists, of a race which had been the vic- 
tim of prejudice and oppression in many lands and 
for many centuries, characterized him as a "strong 
and wise defender of the oppressed of all climes 
and of all faiths." His humanity was broad and 
deep. Wherever was persecution, the first to 
spring to the front in the American Congress to 
do away with it, was Samuel Sullivan Cox. 

Of none of the achievements of his public career 
was he prouder than of those which justified his 
title of "Father of the Life-Saving Service," or the 
"Friend of the Letter Carriers." And yet, in his 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 7 

elaborate volume, "Three Decades of Federal 
Legislation," he modestly refrains from making 
even passing allusion to those crowning triumphs 
of his legislative life. Those, however, whom he 
so ably served will ever keep his deeds in grateful 
remembrance. 

In the limits set to this volume it was not pos- 
sible to go beyond a mere outline of Mr. Cox's 
memorable legislative experience. His many no- 
table speeches in Congress and public addresses 
outside of that body would make a valuable vol- 
ume, sparkling in thought and expression, and 
evincing ripe scholarship and profound study. He 
touched no subject that he did not illuminate and 
adorn. Generations hence, traditions of Samuel 
Sullivan Cox will be on the lips of the men who 
shall serve in the halls of the American Congress. 



CHAPTER I. 



ANCESTRY. 



For Virginia the claim has proudly been made 
that she was the mother of States and Statesmen. 
The Old Dominion has a rival in the State which 
lies between the Ohio River and Lake Erie — the 
only State of the Union which, in the days of sla- 
very, touched the borders of a slave State on the 
one side and the Canadian line on the other. With 
the record she has made before her, Ohio may 
justly contest with Virginia the honor of being 
the mother of statesmen. Especially since the 
outbreak of the civil war, in 1861, the State of Ohio 
has, through her gallant sons, cut a conspicuous 
figure in American history, in both field and cabi- 
net. Every Republican chosen President of the 
Republic since Lincoln — Grant, Hayes, Garfield, 
Harrison, and McKinley — first saw the light in 
Ohio. Here also was the birthplace of those great 
military chieftains, Grant and Sherman; of great 
administrators such as Chase and Stanton; and 
statesmen foremost in the halls of legislation, like 
Ewing, Hendricks, and John Sherman. In this 
last named group belongs also another name, 
equally illustrious, suffering naught by compari- 
son, a man for over thirty years conspicuous in the 
country's service — Samuel Sullivan Cox. With 
the zeal of his service he blended a keen political 



10 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

foresight which history has vindicated, in the tri- 
umph in recent years of the conservative princi- 
ples for which he so ably contended. 

The secret of the prominence in national affairs 
attained by these sons of Ohio, the product of her 
virgin soil, is easily found by those who would 
seek it. Largely it is a matter of heredity. The 
early settlers of Ohio were sturdy rejDresentatives 
from the best families of New England, the Mid- 
dle States, and Virginia, and if we examine the 
family history of any one of the distinguished 
representatives from Ohio we shall find that he 
was a descendant from some one of these brave 
pioneers. The truth of all this is demonstrated 
with more than ordinary force in the case of Sam- 
uel S. Cox. 

Of his ancestors on the paternal side the first 
to come to the New World was Thomas Cox, who, 
with his wife Elizabeth Blashford, of Marshpath- 
kills, Long Island, settled in Upper Freehold 
township in the Province of East New Jersey in 
1670. The family came from Herefordshire, Eng- 
land, and were people of means, as is shoAvn by 
the fact that the name of Thomas Cox is included 
among those of the twenty-four original proprie- 
tors of the Province. Their son James (born Au- 
gust 18, 1672; died October 18, 1750)^ was 
born in Monmouth County two years after their 
settlement in New Jersey, and he became a large 
land owner. His estate included some of the 
most valuable lands in the colony and from its 
richness was called "Cream Kidge," a name hand- 
ed down to posterity by a postoffice in the imme- 
diate vicinity, at which some of his descendants 




GENERAL JAMES COX. 
(Grandfather of S. S. Cox.) 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 11 

still receive their mail. He lived to the age of 
seventy-eight. The next in descent was Joseph 
Cox (born August 18, 1713; died April 17, 1801). 
He was a farmer in easy circumstances, of whom 
it was said that "he always contended for the 
equal rights of man; that he was opposed to all 
oppression and injustice; that he honored no man 
because he was rich; that he was never ashamed 
of honest labor, and readily put his hand to any 
work to be done on his farm." In early life 
he married Mary, (born May 31, 1715; died No- 
vember 24, 1800) daughter of Thomas Mount of 
Shrewsbury, N. J., and the last years of these two 
good people were spent in comfort and ease on the 
fine old farm in Upper Freehold. One of their 
grandchildren often referred to the happy hours 
spent in their rooms listening to the Bible which 
this venerable ancestor delighted to read aloud to 
his wife. He lived to be eighty-eight years of age 
and survived his wife by one year; she having 
died in 1800, at eighty-five. 

James Cox (born October 16, 1753, died Septem- 
ber 12, 1810), was the ninth child of the foregoing. 
As a young man he was noted for his mental and 
physical vigor and activity, and these qualities 
stood him in stead in the stormy times so soon 
to occur. When the war of the Eevolution began 
he promptly enlisted as a private in the First New 
Jersey Regiment. He was soon elected first lieu- 
tenant of his company, of which he was frequent- 
ly given command, and participated in the battles 
of Germantown and Monmouth, the latter of 
which was fought within a few miles of his home. 
To illustrate his courage when under fire the fol- 
lowing story was related to his son, David Jones 



12 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

Gox, by an Irish soldier from Delaware, who 
served under him: "In the battle of Monmouth, 
be dad, the bullets flew thicker than hail-stones, 
and 'Jammy' right in the midst of them — indade I 
never ixpected to see him alive if he did not flee — 
but the divil a bit of flight was there in Jammy 
and he did not even get hit by 'em. Och! your 
father was a blue hen's chicken, indade was he." 
His patriotism was so intense that even after the 
war was over he persistently held aloof from those 
who had remained loyal to the crown, as the fol- 
lowing anecdote will show: One day while at 
work in a field he discovered the residence of a 
neighbor to be on fire. He at once hastened to 
the spot, accompanied by the farm-hand who was 
at work with him, and by great exertion, even at 
the risk of his life, succeeded in extinguishing the 
flames. This service excited lively expressions of 
gratitude and elicited a confession that this same 
family had often attempted to have his house 
burned during the war. But no permanent recon- 
ciliation took place. General Cox still looked up- 
on these neighbors as enemies of his country and 
they for their part never ceased to regard him as 
a rebel against the King. 

Soon after the Revolution Mr. Cox was made a 
major in the militia and later he was chosen by the 
legislature brigadier-general of the Monmouth 
Brigade. He was also called to various civic of- 
fices of trust, such as assessor and town clerk. In 
1800 he was induced to become a candidate for the 
State legislature but was defeated. A year later 
he was elected a member of the General Assembly 
and held his seat in that body for seven terms. In 



SAMUEL SiULLIVAN COX 13 

his third year he was elected speaker of the Assem- 
bly and he continued to hold that position so long 
as he was a member of the Assembly. In 1808 he 
was elected a Eepresentative in Congress. He had 
served two years in that body when his career was 
suddenly cut short by apoplexy which terminated 
fatally in September, 1810. General Cox was 
known as an earnest Christian gentleman. His 
generosity and hospitality were famous, so much 
so indeed as to prevent any great accumulation 
of property. His son, the Rev. Samuel J. Cox, 
wrote on this point: "The large size of his family; 
the great number of visitors; and the natural de- 
sire to make an api)earance in accordance with his 
station and the company he kept, prevented much 
accumulation of property." Besides this, he was 
induced by his pastor to purchase Kentucky land, 
the title of which proved worthless. He was also 
prevailed upon to become security for a man en- 
gaged in the same land transaction, which he had 
to pay. During the time he was making payments 
he promised to deliver a load of leather on a cer- 
tain day. On his way, he heard that the purcnas- 
er's affairs were in a critical condition; but he 
went on. Before he arrived he passed the resi- 
dence of Rev. Dr. Staughton, who hastened out to 
stop him, and informed him of the state of the 
case. General Cox replied, "I have promised, and 
what can I do?" After some further conversa- 
tion, Dr. Staughton lifted up his hands and ex- 
claimed in the language of Dr. Watts, "And 
though to his own hurt he swears, still he per- 
forms his word" "Go on, and may the Lord 

bless you!" This circumstance shows how rigid- 
ly he regarded the obligation of a pledge. 



14 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

He was a rare conversationalist and his anec- 
dotes were spiced with wit and humor. He was 
very popular among his neighbors by whom it was 
related that he never asked any person to vote for 
him, and that from the time of his nomination till 
after election he scarcely ever left his own farm. 
In appearance and manners he was dignified and 
commanding, and he was a general favorite with 
both political parties. It was from this ancestor, 
apparently, that his distinguished grandson inher- 
ited some of his choicest traits. In a speech 
made in Monmouth county in 1868, Mr. S. S. Cox 
said: 

"The Tories never loved my grandfather Cox as 
a whig in the Revolution. They hated him as a 
Democrat after. For years he was a member, in 
fact, the Speaker of one of the houses of legisla- 
tion at Trenton. He died as the Democratic mem- 
ber of Congress just before the War of 1812. He 
was an honest, just, courteous, courageous, and 
fearless Democrat champion. He was the warm 
friend of Jefferson and the devoted advocate of 
Madison. He believed in the Democratic rules of 
interpreting the Constitution, His hatred of re- 
straints upon personal and soul liberty; his di- 
atribes against the alien and sedition laws; his 
steadfast dislike of Englishmen and English pol- 
icy have been handed down as heir-looms." 

To disregard the maternal line in considering a 
genealogical record would be to ignore a most im- 
portant influence in moulding life and character. 

Anne Potts (born February 13, 1757; died March 
21, 1815), the grandmother of Samuel S. Cox on 
the paternal side, was the daughter of William 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 15 

Potts of Burlington, N. J., who was the grandson 
of William Potts who arrived in the New World 
in 1678, having with his wife and children come 
over in the "Shield," the first ship that ever drop- 
ped anchor before Burlington. Her mother was 
Amy, the youngest daughter of Joseph Borden, 
the founder of Bordentown, N. J. The Borden 
connection is one of special interest for the reason 
that Richard Borden, the grandfather of Joseph 
Borden, who founded Bordentown, was the only 
New England ancestor that Mr, Cox had. IMchard 
Borden was a resident of Portsmouth, E. I., and 
served as an Assistant in 1653-4; as Treasurer in 
1654-5, and as Deputy in 1667-70. Although only 
collaterally related it is interesting to note that 
Col, Joseph Borden, who was the son of the found- 
er, was an ardent patriot, being a member of the 
Stamp Act Congress in 1765, a Delegate to the 
Provincial Congress of New Jersey in 1775, and 
subsequently to the breaking out of the war of the 
Revolution, a Colonel of a Batallion, and Quarter- 
Master of the State troops. His daughter Mary 
married Thomas McKean, member of Congress 
from Delaware in 1776, and a signer of the Decla- 
ration of Independence. Subsequently he became 
Governor of Pennsylvania. Another daughter, 
Anne, married Francis Hopkins, also a signer of 
the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey. 
Joseph Hopkinson, the author of "Hail Colum- 
bia," was his son. The marriage of Anne Potts 
with James Cox, the grandfather of the subject of 
this biography, took place on February 29, 1776, 
a few months prior to the Declaration of Ameri- 
can Independence. We may be sure that she 



16 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

shared with her newly wedded husband his strong 
love of country; indeed, it may have been her po- 
tent influence that induced him, leaving his bride, 
to join the Colonial army. Mrs. Cox was long re- 
membered as a devoted Christian and an excellent 
mother to her thirteen children. She was de- 
scribed by one who knew her well as "an almost 
peerless woman." While on her way to pay a 
visit to one of her children, in 1815, she was 
drowned in the Delaware River by the capsizing 
of the packet boat on which she was a passenger. 
The simple inscription "Mild, benevolent, and 
pious, few lived more beloved, or died more la- 
mented" engraved on her tombstone in Trenton, 
is a truthful epitome of her character. 

Speaking, in the campaign of 1868, at Mount 
Holly, New Jersey, Mr. Cox indulged in some rem- 
iniscences of his family connection with that 
neighborhood. "Fifty years ago," he said, "my 
father emigrated from this neighborhood, where 
his father lived before him. He carried, on a pack 
horse over the Alleganies, the old Kamage print- 
ing press. He was a pioneer printer. His father, a 
descendant of the proprietor of East Jersey, was 
Gen. James Cox, one of the heroes of Germantown, 
Brandywine, and Monmouth. My grandfather was 
married at Mansfield, in this county. My great 
grandfather was Mr. Borden: Bordentown per- 
petuates his good name. Some of these good peo- 
ple were Baptists, whose motto was, 'Let us have 
war,' while war was flagrant; and some Quakers, 
whose motto was, 'Let us have peace,' when peace 
was needed." 

An old water color still in the possession of the 




■^^t#S; 






SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 17 

family shows the old homestead — "Box Grove" as 
it was called — near Imlaystown. General Gox 
stands in the doorway of the picturesque home 
clothed in his military uniform of buff and blue 
with cocked hat and knee breeches. His devoted 
wife, Ann Potts, is by his side dressed in the plain 
garb of a Quakeress. In the foreground is his 
handsome son, Thomas, also in knee breeches and 
with a very long tailed coat. Thomas is greeting 
a young lady wearing a quaint short waisted 
white gown, who is said to be his fiance. To the 
left by a grape arbor are Amy and Mary, twin sis- 
ters, dressed in the style of that time. The pride of 
a parent, in those days, was in his family; and iu 
this respect General Cox was abundantly blessed, 
being the father of fourteen children. Of these 
the twelfth, and father of Samuel Sullivan 
Cox, was Ezekiel Taylor Cox (born in Upper Free- 
hold May 25, 1795; died in Zanesville May 18, 
1873.) Ezekiel as a boy was given such limited ad- 
vantages of education as the country then afford- 
ed. A cousin by marriage was James J. Wilson of 
Trenton, a man of extraordinary talents, edi- 
tor of the "True American" newspaper. Wilson, 
whose wife was a daughter of Samuel Cox, an eld- 
er brother of General Cox, held in his time many 
offices of public trust, including that of United 
States Senator. Concededly he wielded the largest 
political influence of any man in New Jersey. It 
was Ezekiel Cox's good fortune to become asso- 
ciated with Senator Wilson, in the publication of 
his newspaper. "Wilson," wrote the Rev. Samuel J. 
Cox, brother of Ezekiel, "was very intimate with 
my father and his family, and a strong attachment 



18 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

both political and social subsisted between them. 
This, probably led to my being placed in his fam- 
ily and in his office, where at a subsequent period, 
my brother Ezekiel was also placed, for the same 
purpose." 

Young Ezekiel found himself in a congenial en- 
vironment and he improved every opportunity to 
educate himself. His studious habits, probity, and 
great aptness were appreciated by Senator Wilson 
who soon grew to depend on him and placed much 
of his private business in his care. This was per- 
formed with such satisfaction that the young man 
was given an interest in the "True American." He 
rose to be State Printer of New Jersey, by ap- 
pointment of the Legislature, of which his father. 
Gen. Oox, was speaker. The west in those days was 
still new, and opportunities for fortune-making 
presented themselves to such as were willing to 
brave the hardships of a frontier life. 

"Westward the course of empire takes its way." 
Wildernesses soon became fertile farms, settle- 
ments grew to towns, and towns gave way with 
equal rapidity to large cities. Ohio was an Eldor- 
ado fifty years before California claimed that ap- 
pellation. Strong with an ambition to succeed in 
life, Ezekiel T. Cox disposed of all his belongings, 
save alone his Kamage press and type with which, 
packed on the back of his horse, he turned his face 
to the west. Behind him were strong family and 
local ties. In front of him was an unknown land. 
But firm in his faith of ultimate success he per- 
sisted and overcame the trials of a long journey 
through the wilderness and over fastnesses of the 
Alleghenies until at last he reached the promised 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 19 

land of Ohio. He stopped at Zanesville and the 
natural advantages of the place appealed so 
strongly to him that he determined to build for 
himself a home on the banks of the Muskingum. 
About this time the "Muskingum Messenger," one 
of the earliest of Ohio newspapers, having been es- 
tablished in 1810, was for sale. Mr. Cox made an 
offer for it, which was promptly accepted, and in 
February, 1819, he became its publisher and edi- 
tor. 

Party feeling even at that remote period gave 
rise to bitter animosities, but with an experience 
gained in the best school, and with rare tact, Mr. 
Cox was soon master of the situation. His ready 
pen, combined with an excellent stock of informa- 
tion, made the "Messenger" the most infiuentiai 
Jacksonian organ in the state. A writer referring 
to the trials experienced by Mr. Cox in conducting 
his paper said: "It was no ordinary effort — at that 
day — when everything, from rags to cord wood — 
everything but cash — had to be taken for subscrip- 
tions and jobs, to make a paper successful," The 
success of the "Messenger" shows that it was ed- 
ited and managed with ability. 

In 1821 Mr. Cox, having demonstrated himself a 
successful editor, was chosen a clerk of the Court 
of Common Pleas, and so satisfactorily did he per- 
form the duties of that exacting office that he was 
also made clerk of the Supreme Court and Record- 
er of Muskingum county. These offices he held for 
many years, so discharging his duties as to receive 
the commendation alike of judges, attorneys, and 
clients. In 1831 he was elected to the State Sen- 
ate, and while a member of that body secured an 



20 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

appropriation for the slack water navigation be- 
tween Zanesville and Dresden. In general affairs 
he was also active, among his achievements the 
most important, perhaps, being the establishment, 
in 1833, of a steam paper mill — ^said to be the first 
paper mill west of the Alleghenies — in Zanesville. 
The mill was destroyed by fire in 1837, and soon 
after he disposed of his interest to his brother. 

After years filled with activities of many kinds, 
came the natural desire for rest; and one by one 
Ezekiel relinquished his different offices in order 
to retire to a farm of some forty acres which in 
1840 he purchased in Springfield township. Here 
for a decade or more he made his home, whilehe saw 
around him his large family growing from child- 
hood to maturity. In 1850 he returned to active 
journalism, and with his son Alexander purchased 
the ' 'Gazette," which was published in Zanesville. 
It has been pointedly said concerning this new 
venture that: "It showed more than his early ef- 
forts in the same vocation, that the graduate of 
the poor bo3^'s college, the printing office, was wor- 
thy of his education." 

Public office again claimed him, and he was 
made United States Marshal for that section of 
Ohio in which he lived. An incident occurred 
while he held this office which Avill illustrate the 
character of the man. He had received instruc- 
tions to apprehend a runaway slave. Bearing in 
mind the sacred obligation of his oath of office, and 
not to be deterred by angry threats, he determined 
that he would arrest the negro at all hazards, even 
at the risk of his life. This he did, not however 
without sacrifice of standing in his church. As 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 21 

penalty for performing a most disagreeable duty 
he was expelled from the Market Street Baptist 
Cliurcb, in which he was a deacon, losing also, of 
course, that honored office. Although opposed to 
slavery he was not a man to flinch in the execution 
of any duty connected with a public office that he 
held, or to resign his commission in times of emer- 
gency. 

In 1866 his children having for the most part 
settled in life, Ezekiel Cox determined to give up 
Ms farm and settle in a city. Accordingly his son, 
Sfimuel, secured for him from President Johnson 
the nomination to be Pension Agent in Columbus, 
Ohio. The Senate refused to confirm him, on the 
ground that the candidate was a Democrat. How- 
ever, he went to Washington and was associated 
for a time in a large claim and brokerage business 
established by his son Alexander. Longing for his 
old friends and his old home, he returned in a few 
years to Zanesville. He celebrated the golden an- 
niversary of his wedding at the old home (then the 
property of the widow of his eldest son, Colonel 
Thomas J. Cox) on April 8, 1872, and a year later 
on May 18, 1873, he died. 

Senator Cox was an uncompromising Democrat, 
of the Jackson school. In the family archives is 
extant an old letter signed by twenty or more 
leading Democrats of Ohio, and addressed to Pres- 
ident Andrew Jackson, introducing Senator Cox. 
The letter is dated Columbus, O., 20th February, 
1833, and reads thus: — 

"General Andrew Jackson — Dear Sir: — Our es- 
teemed fellow-citizen, E.T.Cox, Esq., of Zanesville, 
at present a member of the Senate of this State, ex- 
pects to visit Washington, and for the first time 



32 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

to make a call on the President while in the city. 
Mr. Cox stands deservedly high among his friends 
and acquaintances in Ohio, and for many years has 
stood identified with the democracy of the Union. 
From his character and standing among us, he is 
worthy of all confidence. It is with much pleasure 
we introduce him to your acquaintance, and beg 
leave, through him, to tender you, as the chief 
magistrate of this nation, our kindest regard and 
salutations." 

A newspaper obituarj^ said of him: "Whether 
we regard the deceased as a pioneer citizen of 
this place, as an early and constant friend of its 
improvement, as an officer and legislator, as a po- 
litical and social friend, as a kind, indulgent 
father and affectionate husband, w^hether as an 
adventurous printer and editor in the wilderness 
of Ohio, combatting with untried difficulties, and 
not only accomplished at the case and the press, 
but in clear, technical, and accurate style of writ- 
ing, or as a faithful, well-informed and attentive 
officer of the court, courteous to judges, jurors, 
witnesses, suitors, and lawyers; or as a Christian 
man of just views and honest conduct, refined by 
extensive reading and reflection, and a constant 
communion with his Bible and his God, his name 
will be remembered with honor. It reflects credit 
upon his children, as well as the city and state in 
which he lived." 

Such was the father of Samuel S. Cox as he ap- 
peared to his neighbors. 

The mother of Samuel S. Cox was Maria Matil- 
da (born March 16, 1801; died April 3, 1885), the 
second daughter of Judge S^amuel Sullivan and 
liis wife Mary Freeman. 





U^, ' 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 23 

The Sullivan family is of Irish origin, tracing its 
line to one Fingin, a son of Aod Dubh, King of 
Miinster. Its first ancestor in this country came to 
America with one of the Irish colonies sent by Lord 
Baltimore for the settlement of Maryland under 
the charter granted by Charles June 20, 1632. The 
intolerance of the Old World is in great contrast 
to the broad tolerant spirit of the State Constitu- 
tion of Marj^land, framed by these refugees of the 
Roman faith. 

The Sullivan family was scattered through vari- 
ous parts of Mainland, Virginia and Delaware, 
and from that branch that settled in Delaware the 
present line of descent is derived. 

Samuel Sullivan, son of David and Jane Sulli- 
van, was born near Wilmington, Delaware, April 
10, 1772; and died, October 15, 1853. The early 
death of his parents, the misappropriation of the 
family estate and bad investments by the business 
partner left the three young boys dependent upon 
strangers and the labor of their own hands. 

As was customary in those days, they were ap- 
prenticed, and Samuel's lot was to serve as a pot- 
ter in one of the factories ou the banks of the Del- 
aware river, below Philadelphia. This factory 
was among the first of its kind in the New 
World. The knowledge here acquired vv'as "stock 
in trade" for the young man when his fortunes 
drifted him into the Middle West. He discovered 
and utilized the fine clay banks in Ohio, and was 
the pioneer mani^facturer of fine wares of which 
the Muskingum Valley and other parts of Ohio 
boast to-day. 

There are specimens of this early, yellow orna- 



24 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

mented ware made by Samuel Sullivan still in the 
family. 

Samuel Sullivan was scarcely of age when he 
married in Philadelphia, Mary Freeman, daugh- 
ter of Samuel and Elizabeth Freeman. Mary Free- 
man was a native of Delaware, born August 25, 
1773. She lived to the great age of ninety, dying 
in Zanesville, Ohio, December 27, 1863. In 1804 
Samuel followed his two elder brothers, David and 
Aaron Sullivan, to Ohio and after spending some 
years in the Scioto Valley, and in St. Clairsviile, 
he finally settled permanently in Zanesville, then 
the Capital of Ohio, Identifying himself with the 
general interests of Muskingum county in 1816 he 
was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. 
Later he was sent to the Ohio Senate and then was 
chosen by the Legislature State Treasurer, a post 
which he held for a year. Finally from 1827 to 
1831 he was postmaster of Zanesville. 

The last years of his life were spent on his farm, 
where he devoted special attention to horticul- 
ture. He planted two orchards, the last after he 
was seventy-five years of age. When asked how 
he could interest himself in labor, the fruits of 
which he could not expect to live to enjoy, he gave 
the philosophical reply that: "We were not work- 
ing for ourselves only — that we are serving as 
stewards for others; and that if our predecesors 
had been governed by the restricted views indi- 
cated in the inquiry, the world would not now be 
covered with good and pleasant things." 

Judge Sullivan was a self educated man, well- 
informed, and of affable and genial manners. He 
was never charged with a wrong to anybody. 
Recognizing the full measure of his responsibility 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 25 

in moral duty, he was rated by those who knew 
him best as eminently a just man. He died in 
Zanesville in October, 1853, in the 82d year of his 
age. 

Reference has already been made to the decision 
of Mr. Ezekiel Cox to settle in Zanesville. Among 
those who urged this action was Judge Sullivan. 
The young editor became a visitor at the home of 
the Judge and showed every evidence of enjoy- 
ment in the society of his senior and the visits 
grew in frequency. An account of these 
visits tal:en from a family record tells the story so 
exactly that it is quoted: "The Judge's idea of Mr. 
Cox's platonic feelings, however, received a rude 
shock, one day when he asked for the hand of his 
daughter, Maria Matilda." Consent followed and 
on April 9, 1822, Ezekiel T. Cox and Maria Matil- 
da Sullivan were made one — the Rev. James Cul- 
bertson performing the ceremony. 

Through his mother, as has been stated, Mr. Cox 
traced his lineage to one of Lord Baltimore's asso- 
ciates in the settlement of Maryland — the grand- 
father of Judge Sullivan. In a reminiscent mood 
Mr. Cox, in 1885, wrote to an old friend: "I have 
heard my grandfather say that he remembered his 
grandmother counting her beads. These Quaker- 
Methodists of Northern Delaware and early Ohio 
were three generations before devout Catholics. 
But the change of faith never swerved the ances- 
tral integrity." 

Judge Sullivan gave to his grandson and name- 
sake his fullest confidence, choosing him among 
several sons and sons-in-law, as his sole executor. 

In his last will and testament Judge Sullivan 



26 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

cJiarged his own and his children's children to re- 
member that "their inheritance was the result of 
Democratic institutions," and that he expected 
his namesake and executor, Samuel Sullivan Cox, 
"to sustain those institutions in their democratic 
form and tenor with ballot and with bullet." 

The mother of Samuel Sullivan Cox was born in 
Philadelphia. As a child three years of age she 
accompanied her parents on the tedious journey 
over difficult roads, across rapid running streams 
and mountains that were high and hard to climb, 
until the great fertile Scioto Valley was reached. 
Of the wanderings that followed until Zanesville 
became the permanent home of her parents, Mrs. 
Cox retained a vivid recollection, and many inci- 
dents of that portion of her early life she was 
fond of relating to her grandchildren. 

She frequently recalled the cutting down of the 
"nice grape vine swings" that were removed when 
the bridge was built across the Muskingum river 
at Zanesville. It was on the banks of this river 
that she spent the happiest hours of her young 
girlhood. Here it was that she and the children 
of the early settlers romped and played — often 
with Indian children from "Wapatomika towns." 
There were no schools in Zanesville in those days 
and she received her education almost entirely 
from her parents, but being very bright and a 
quick observer, she shared with ht^r sister Sarah 
the reputation of being "the best informed young 
woman in the neighborhood." 

While in her teens she accompanied her father, 
when elected Senator, to Columbus, no longer 
"the spot opposite Franklinton," but now the 




MARIA MATILDA SULLIVAN COX. 
(Mother of S. S. Cox.) 



27 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

Capital of Ohio. By her ready wit and by her 
clearness of repartee, she became a great favorite, 
and many of the state officers were willing to be- 
come more than "my lady's most devoted admir- 
er." Among these suitors were two, one of whom 
became a governor of Ohio and another a presi- 
dent of the United States. 

As a wife, she was devoted to every detail of her 
husband's career, watchful of his interests, and 
happiest in his presence. 

In one of her letters while her husband — the 
father of S. S. Cox — was in attendance at the Leg- 
islature she writes 

"I hope you will soon be with us," ♦ * ♦ ♦ 
"we put off all pleasure until your return." 

As a mother, she was careful, tender, and watch- 
ful of her children, most of whom she saw grow to 
maturity. For more than fifty years the unbrok- 
en thread of her married life continued. It was a 
happy gathering, that at the old homestead on 
April 8, 1872, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary 
of their marriage. Their children and their child- 
ren's children were there to render filial homage 
and respect. Here and there from the group was 
a missing face, and perhaps most of all in this hour 
of gladness the aged couple thought of that first 
born* who in the time of his country's need had 
left home, like that ancestor of old, to fight for his 
country. 

Few parents have lived to see such a company of 
descendants as were gathered on that occasion 



*Thomaa Jeflferson Cox, born March 7, 1823; died, September 17, 1866. He 
tendered his services to the Government, and on June 11, 1863, was appointed 
by President Lincoln, Captain and Assistant Quartermaster. He was pro- 
moted three times, and died at his post of duty at Nashville, Tennessee. 



28 SAMUEL KULLIVAN COX 

and they had a pardonable pride in their reflection 
that not one of them had brought reproach upon 
their care and teaching. 

In a few months came the death of the husband, 
and more and more as the years advanced the ven- 
erable widow came to depend upon her second son, 
Samuel Sullivan, named for her own father, and, 
as events proved, the stay of her widowhood and 
her old age. Twelve years she survived her hus- 
band. In April, 1885, her distinguished son, then 
about to embark for Turkey, as United States Min- 
ister, was summoned to his venerable mother's 
bedside, reaching it just in time to receive her con- 
scious blessing. She died April 3, 1885, aged 84. 



CHAPTER II. 



BOYHOOD. 



Of such honorable lineage came Samuel Sulli- 
\^an Cox, in whom were happily blended the best 
traits and characteristics of his ancestors. The 
second of a family of thirteen children — of whom 
eight grew to maturity — he was born, in Zanes- 
ville, Ohio, September 30, 1824. His father was 
at that time clerk of the Supreme Court of Ohio 
and the family residence was on Third street. Sur- 
rounding the home which welcomed the little 
stranger were. well kept grounds, abounding with 
flowers and shrubs, which were the pride and 
special care of the boy's mother. Not far distant 
resided Judge Sullivan, and his honored name, the 
parents decided, should be bestowed on the grand- 
son. So they called him Samuel Sullivan. 

The future statesman's advent into the world 
was in the midst of an exciting presidential con- 
test. The administration of President Monroe 
was drawing to a close and with it the "era of good 
feeling." General Jackson was waging his first 
campaign for capture of the White House. It was 
a quadrangular contest, his rivals being Henry 
Clay, Wm. H. Crawford, and John Quincy Adams. 
In both the popular and the electoral vote the hero 
of New Orleans was first in the race, but, notwith- 
standing, he failed to secure the glittering prize. 



30 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

A plurality was not in this case a majority — there 
was no choice in the electoral college, and, in con- 
sequence, the election went to the House of Rep- 
resentatives. That body chose the son of the 
second president, who then was nearing the close 
of his eventful life in Massachusetts. While this 
crisis in American history, culminating in the el- 
ection of John Quincy Adams to the presidency, 
was going on, Samuel Sullivan Cox was an infant 
blissfully indifferent to the storm of passion 
which was raging without. Indeed Ohio, three 
quarters of a century ago, was practically as dis- 
tant from the Atlantic seaboard as is Alaska to- 
day. 

The steam engine, on the iron rail, had not yet 
come to annihilate space; nor the telegraph to 
girdle the earth and annihilate time and space. 
Weeks must elapse before the mails, carried by 
lumbering stages over rough roads and across the 
mountains, could convey to the frontiersmen of 
Zanesville the news that, not Jackson but Adams, 
had been elevated to the chair of James Monroe. 

Little Samuel grew and flourished. He early 
became the pet of the neighborhood. He is de- 
scribed by one of his neighbors as having been 
"bright, sunny, genial, fond of fun, sparkling with 
wit, always truthful, fearless, and generous, never 
hesitating to confess a fault of his own, and ever 
ready to defend the weak and oppressed." The 
child was father of the man. In the village school 
he was known as an exceptionally bright scholar, 
always ready, however, to help any who lagged 
behind him in the race for learning. A cousin of 
his was fond of relating hov/ he was taught his 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 31 

letters by this boy, who, having reached the ma- 
ture age of six, was ambitious to elevate his play- 
mate, his junior by six months, to a level with his 
own advancement. 

He had hardly learned to read before he devel- 
oped a special love for books of travel, devouring 
eagerly every such book he could lay his hands on. 
Visions of travel filled his boyish imagination, 
and he used to tell his mother that some day he, 
too, was going to visit the Holy Land; that he 
would go to Kussia; see the Sultan and the min- 
arets of Constantinople; that he was going to the 
North Pole, or at least near enough to it to see the 
sun go 'round without setting. These childish 
fancies were no idle dream; he lived to realize 
them all, and, moreover, to make word-pictures of 
the wonderful scenes he witnessed, which were to 
be the delight Df thousands. A brilliant career 
for the preternaturally bright boy was freely pre- 
dicted by his teachers. 

A sample of his precocity as a child is shown in 
a letter written by him when he was eight years 
of age. The letter is to his father while the lat- 
ter was absent at Columbus. Mrs. Cox, who was 
sending a letter to her husband, from "Lonely 
Mansion," January 30, added: "I shall fill the 
vacancy with Samuel's letter, as he is at school 
but has it written on the slate. He says: 

"Dear Father: I take the liberty in writing in 
Mother's letter to say that we attend to our school, 
that we study our tables in the evening and I be- 
lieve I know mine pretty well and what do you 
think of that? Don't you think I deserve a News 
gift. We had a fine time on Christmas. We 



32 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

barred the master out and he had to treat us to 
some cider, apples, cakes and nuts. We were all 
sorry at the loss of Turk. Thomas attends to his 
little cow. She is fat and gives us plenty of milk. 
Mother has made Thomas (then ten years old) a 
fine green hunting shirt. He looks quite like a 
backwoodsman. Samuel S. Cox.' " 

Two other literary ventures of young Samuel 
are extant, being compositions in the form of let- 
ters addressed, one to his mother, the other to his 
father, when the boy was ten years old. They 
are written in a neat hand and read as follows: 

"Zanesville, Ohio, April 25, 1835. 
"Dear Mother: 

"It is now spring, and the blossoms and the cher- 
ry-trees are out, and I expect we will have some 
cherries, and other fruit; we had no fruit last 
year. When summer comes the boys go in a swim- 
ming; they go a fishing, and catch fish, and sell 
them. And then comes autumn, when the leaves 
fall off the trees. And then comes winter, then 
you will have to wear mittens or gloves to keep 
your hands warm; in very cold weather the river 
freezes over, and the boys bind skates to their feet 
and amuse themselves with skating. I skated 
last winter, and was much pleased with the exer- 
cise. Your affectionate son, 

"Samuel S. Cox." 

"Zanesville. Ohio, April 25, 1835. 
"Dear Father: 

"On Beasts — The lion is called the king of the 
beasts, the tiger is a fierce animal of the cat kind, 
the elephant is the largest animal in the world. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 33 

he is very sensible, he will carry boys or men on 
his trunk. In India they carry large burdens; in 
some parts of the world there are white elephants. 
The rhinoceros is a large animal. I saw one in a 
menagerie in this town; they had a log chain 
around his neck, sunk ten feet in the ground to 
keep him from getting loose; the zebra is striped; 
it is of the horse kind and is very handsome; there 
are many other beasts, but I have not time to de- 
scribe them. Your affectionate son, 

"Samuel Cox." 

The boy was sent to the academy at Zanesville 
to prepare for admission to the Ohio University. 
The academy principal was Professor How^e, a 
well known and somewhat distinguished educat- 
or of those days, a man of learning and cultiva- 
tion. "Samuel," says one of his townsmen of that 
period, "was always full of his boyish pranks, 
even venturing sometimes to play tricks on his 
dignified father, for which it is said that his eld- 
est brother, Thomas, used not infrequently to re- 
ceive the reproof and punishment rather than be- 
tray- the real culprit, to whom his self-sacrifice 
would be all unknown. But he was a diligent and 
enthusiastic student, who won and kept a high 
place among his classmates. Before he had 
passed out of boyhood he was appointed deputv 
to his father, w^ho was then serving as clerk of 
the Supreme Court and of the Court of Common 
Pleas. Even at this early age he was so thorough- 
ly conversant with all the business of the office 
that a great part of it was safely intrusted to 
him." 

The official documents leading to the appoint- 



34 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

ment of this boy of fourteen to a court clerkship 
follow: 

"The State of Ohio, Muskingum County, ss. : 

"To the Honorable Judges of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas of said county, at their May term, A. 
D. 1838: 

"From the experience and capacity of my son, 
Samuel S. Cox, I hereby nominate him as my Dep- 
uty Clerk of said Court, and request your Honors 
to ratify and confirm said nomination, pursuant to 
statute. By this appointment I am well satisfied 
that the public interest and convenience will be 
subserved. 

"Given under my hand this 31st day of May, 

1838. 

"E. T. Cox, 

"Clerk of said Court." 

(Appointment made.) 

"The State of Ohio, Muskingum County, ss. : 

"I, E. T. Cox, Clerk of the Supreme Court of Mus- 
kingum County, hereby certify that I have this day 
appointed my son, Samuel S. Cox, as my Deputy 
Clerk of said Court, and request that said appoint- 
ment be approved and confirmed. 

"In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand 
and affix the seal of said Supreme Court, this 30th 
day of October, 1838. E. T. Cox, Clerk." 

The followino- incident has been preserved as 
showing his interest in curi*ent affairs even when 
a mere child: 

During the Black Hawk war supplies and blank- 
ets were being collected for the use of the volun- 
teers and those having the matters in charge came 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 35 

to Mr. Cox's house late one night. Samuel over- 
heard the conversation from the head of the stairs 
and running to his room pulled the blanket off 
from his bed and threw it over the balustrade with 
the exclamation, ''Here, mother, give them this 
one. Hurrah!" 

His patriotism did not cease with this incident, 
and a few years later his elder brother, Thomas 
J. Cox then at college in Granville, writes him as 
follows, under date of July 20, 1839, at which time 
the younger brother was fourteen, the elder being 
sixteen: 

"So you read the Declaration of Independence 
to the Sabbath School. I suppose you read it 
well, for a boy who can read the minutes of the 
Court before judges and lawyers ought to read 
the Declaration of Independence a great deal bet- 
ter where there are only a parcel of children — and 
besides a boy who professes to be such a great 
friend to his country as you do ought to have it 
committed to memory." 

If he had not at that time committed this prec- 
ious document to memory he certainly soon fol- 
lowed his brother's advice, for it is well known 
that as a boy he learned by heart both the Declar- 
ation of Independence and the Constitution of the 
United States. 

"This," writes one of his relatives, "is the first 
authentic statement that I have been able to find 
locating definitely when he began making patri- 
otic addresses, although it is claimed that he 
made, when much younger, speeches that were lit- 
erally stump speeches, for his only audience was 
the trees of the neighboring woods." 



36 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

The reference in this letter to the fact that ho 
''read the minutes of the Court before judges and 
lawyers" corroborates statements made by th(3 
successor to his seat in Congress, the Honorable 
Amos J. Cummings, that "at the age of eleven he 
was a valuable assistant to his father in the Coun- 
ty Clerk's office at Zanesville. There are men liv- 
ing," he adds, "who saw the boy swear jurors and 
witnesses, issue writs, and make up journals. He 
performed all the duties of an expert clerk before 
he was thirteen years old." 

Years afterward when addressing an audience 
in Black's Music Hall in Zanesville, Mr. Cox said: 

"When a boy I was sworn in yonder Court 
House — as an assistant to my father, then Coun- 
ty Clerk — to support the Constitution of the State 
of Ohio and of the United States. Since that 
time I have wandered all over this country and in 
many climes, yet I have never wandered from my 
oath to support and maintain the Constitution of 
these United States." 

Meanwhile he continued his preparation for col- 
lege. Among his teachers were Messrs. Mears, 
Hobby and Fulton. He also studied under the 
Rev. George C. Sedgwick, a Baptist minister, who 
had his school in the basement of the First Bap- 
tist Church on Sixth street, and under Professor 
Howe of the Market Street Academy. 

He was a diligent and enthusiastic student, and 
yet he was by no manner of means a mere student, 
for it is well knoAvn that he was full of boyish 
I pranks. 

' Old residents of Zanesville still recall the pic- 
ture on the streets of "Sam Cox and his pony," 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 37 

as the one ou the back of the other dashed into 
town at full gallop, from the boy's country home. 
In connection with that same quadruped and his 
boy rider, the mother of Mr. Cox used to tell with 
evident relish, this story: One day as she sat in 
her parlor window sewing, chancing to glance out 
of the window she saw little Sammy galloping up 
the country lane towards the house. The next 
moment both rider and pony were attempting to 
make their bows of obeisance to her ladyship 
from the hearth rug, in the parlor, where, the back 
door being opened, the youthful scion, liaving rid- 
den into the house, thought to give his maternal 
a surprise party! ^'You, Samuel!" was the star- 
tled greeting — but the jolly laugh that followed 
ended the reproof. 

One of his early schoolmates, Rev. S. D. Clayton 
cf Dayton, Ohio, has written: 

"He and I went to school to Mr. James Fulton 
opposite the west end of the Market House. We 
all and always called him 'Captain' and such he 
was from the time he was six or seven years old. 
He was very small of stature at that time, but a 
born leader, small as he was. He was not quar- 
relsome, rather the reverse, but he would fight 
like a tiger if he was imposed upon, or if he saw 
any one wronged, he would pitch into a boy twice 
his age and five times as large. His fighting qual- 
ities were magnificent. It stirs my blood to re- 
call his combats and his victories. There was 
nothing low or base in his nature. There could 
not be, for he had good blood in his veins, and a 
more chivalrous soul was never champion for the 
weak, or struck stronger blows for his friends." 



38 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

It is more than likely that the title of "Cap- 
tain" was a surviving memory of a short military 
experience when he and others of his comrades 
organized the Zanesville Lancers, "in which," to 
quote a surviving member, "Sam was Orderly 
Sergeant." 

Of his boyhood schoolmates more than one ha% 
become famous, among them Justice William B. 
Woods of the United States Supreme Court, the 
Rev. Dr. William Aschmore, an eminent Baptist 
Missionary who spent his life in China, and Dr. 
James M. Safford, the State Geologist of Tennes- 
see. 

"His memory," says one, "was marvelous. As a 
Sabbath school scholar he easily committed to 
memory the entire book of Romans, and it is said 
he knew the old twenty-ninth volume of the 
Ohio Laws by heart, and that, later on, he could 
draw up any pleading without consulting Chitty." 
An Ohio Congressman, in his tribute to his mem- 
ory, tells us: "Mr. Cox was popular from his 
earliest boyhood; he was a natural orator, pos- 
sessed of an eloquent, pathetic manner that never 
failed to captivate the audience he addressed. He 
was singled out in his school-boy days to be the 
orator on each occasion that required a speech." 

In 1842, at the age of eighteen, he entered the 
Ohio University, at Athens. He ranked with the 
most brilliant of his class. It is related that dur- 
ing his stay in the State University a law suit be- 
tween the college and the town was decided in 
favor of the latter, much to the displeasure of the 
students. Party spirit ran high, and the divisional 
lines were as marked as in fights between "towns- 
men and gownsmen" in an English university 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 39 

town. A celebration most distasteful to the col- 
lege was decided on; a bonfire was to be built, 
speeches made, and a cannon fired. The bonfire 
blazed, the speeches were made, but the boom of 
the cannon was not heard, the "great-gun" of the 
town, a 6-pounder, having been prudently spiked 
the night before by a daring college boy. It was 
not known till long after that the youth who so 
effectually silenced the voice of the cannon for 
that and for many succeeding nights was S. S. Cox. 



CHAPTER III. 



COLLEGE LIFE, 



The distance from Zanesville to Athens in the 
Hocking Hills is not great according to our mod- 
ern idea of locomotion, but in 1842 there were no 
railroads in that part of the country, and for con- 
venience as well as for economy's sake the future 
statesman made his way from home to college on 
the back of his horse. 

He was now duly entered as a Freshman in the 
Ohio University. 

Several letters addressed to his father are ex- 
tant, throwing light on his life in that institution. 
In one of these dated January 30, 1844, he writes: 

"I endeavor to improve every particle of time. 
A person cannot know how valuable time, an 
hour, or a half, or a quarter, is until they are sit- 
uated properly to improve it, and then every mo- 
ment of it is in demand. From daylight to sun- 
set there is one continual going if you are regu- 
lar in your studies, and it seems the very regular- 
ity acts as a preservation on the health by keep- 
ing the mind active and awake." 

No longer a child, but now a full fledged college 
man he was, as usual with Collegians, oppressed 
by the weight of his own knowledge. He unloads 
a little on his father, after this style: 

''I read a good little work on the 'Philosophy of 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 41 

Living/ which I want you to read. It is written 
by Caleb Ticknor, A. M., M. D., etc. It is no inece 
of quackery. It condemns in toto your whole 
system of doctoring, dieting, studying your own 
disens^s, and shows the remarkable affinity be- 
tween the !nind and body — it scouts at the ultva- 
ism of the day both in politics and morals a.s well 
as in diet. What we^'e vhe good thuigs of \he 
world placed iiround us :'(v?? Would God tantalize 
us? Thus he reasons, bit riicderatioi ne^erthe- 
less he enjoins, and he agrees with your views in 
everything as to exercise, etc. But I will not re- 
view it further. I wish you would read it, it is in 
the Athenaeum." 

The value of money had evidently begun to 
dawn upon the student, for he writes : 

"As to 'Domestic Economy' I think that from 
my former habits and associations I was not in- 
clined to value money as much as the filthy lucre 
should be. Yet, I know, that I have done the 
best down here. You are not aware and couldn't 
be till you were here, how easily money goes 
without, too, a single useless thing, or without 
that which is necessary. Now, I left my umbrel- 
la at home, and would not buy any for three 
weeks, but there is such continual wet weather 
that I must have it. There's coal, too, and the 
bill for the horses at General Brown's, and soci- 
ety expenses, paying for my bureau in advance, 
and all those little things summed up I find my 
110.00 gone almost imperceptibly, and yet I know 
I have not paid out money except when needed." 
Hardly an exceptional experience. 

But he was growing restless and casting about 
for a change. To his father he writes: 



42 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"Although I wrote you yesterday, circum- 
stances have occurred which require I should 
write again. Do not think I am troubling you 
too much about my future course. It is not a 
very trifling matter where I am to pass the re- 
mainder of my collegiate course, and it should re- 
ceive a degree of consideration, you will admit, 
correspondent to its importance. 

"I wrote you I had determined on leaving Ath- 
ens. I can spend my time profitably by reading, 
studying for debates, etc., and can easily enter 
junior at Cannonsburgh. If I trouble you too 
much, I have a tolerably good reason, you will 
admit, and I hope you will give me credit for 
wishing, at least, to do the best with the least in- 
convenience and expense. But I am perfectly at 
your will in regard to my future course." 

During a temporary absence from class duties 
at Ohio University one of the faculty of that in- 
stitution wrote to the young student's father: 

"Allow us to express the hope that your son will 
not be detained from his studies longer than nec- 
essary. There is not a youth of his age in the in- 
stitution at this time doing better than he, and 
it is very important that he should not lose his 
standing in his class. He is as zealous and suc- 
cessful in his studies as any parent could wish, 
and if he continues in the same course in which 
he has commenced, your expectations will be most 
fully realized;" 

The student, for the remainder of his course, 
was casting his eyes eastward. To his father he 
thus reveals his hopes and aspirations: 

"I trust and hope you will be enabled to send 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 43 

me the remaining time at an Eastern Institution. 
I prefer Dartmouth, though Brown would prob- 
ably be as well. I am resolved to get an educa- 
tion, and I don't want to do it half, if you only 
encourage me and assist me by your means. The 
education is for life, that I know; it is, too, the 
means of life, and these means will be great in 
proportion to the education, that I know. Will 
you not give me the right encouragement? I 
know you will. Some fathers, I know, would 
glory in having their lazy, hanging-about, doing- 
nothing sons go to college, even should they go 
through as a drag and come out asses." 

His purpose to go to Brown was approved by 
Professor Mather, a member of the faculty at 
Ohio University, as this letter shows: 

"I mentioned Brown University to Professor 
Mather and he told me that he was there himself, 
at about my age, twenty years ago. He intended 
to graduate there and was in the course when he 
received his West Point appointment. He speaks 
highly of it, as it was then, and some few years 
ago, on a visit, he said, it had increased greatly 
and materially. In fact these institutions which 
are endowed are always the best, and those insti- 
tutions in the East are constantly on the increase 
in order to keep up with the go-ahead age. He 
concluded by saying there was not a more 
desirable Instituiton for thorough scholarship in 
the country, and he is a man who understands the 
colleges of the country. Perhaps on account of 
his being a Baptist he speaks so highly, which is 
natural, you know." 

In regard to his progress he says: 



44 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"I am getting along very well here, kept very 
busy; all my leisure moments I take to exercise, 
and sometimes I woo the Muses. I have finished 
my poem for Spring Exhibition. But there is not 
much encouragement here to literary attain- 
ment. It is a pleasant little recreation some- 
times to scribble a little poetry, it not only re- 
fines the imagination, but a good set of wares can 
be garnered up in the store-house of the mind. 1 
do it more to give my writing in general an easy 
flow, a smoothness. I know I have no talent for 
it, but I can do something as well as others. I 
contribute weekly to the paper here. Sometimes 
poetry and sometimes prose. I send mother 
rhymes on 'A Moment' — The Value of 'A Mo- 
ment,' doubtless I have learned from her mater- 
nal advice — how I practice in regard to what I 
write, mother is dubious, I reckon. The first 
piece I wrote I signed 'M. P.' (Maternal Poetry) 
the last 'D' — the gossips here have been compar- 
ing the merits of their respective authors. I look 
on and grin. The least thing of that kind excites 
talk here in this scaly vale of mud." 

Politics had not been forgotten, and he adds: 

"I would have no particular objections if my 
Democratic gTandfather (Samuel Sullivan) or 
some other Democrat would so far contribute to 
the youthful aspirations of a young Democrat like 
me, as to send me Duff Green's new paper started 
lately at New York and called the 'Free Trader.' 
I saw a number of it. Oh ! but he is a scorcher, he 
lashes with no uncommon virulence." 

In a letter to his cousin. Miss Julia Cox, of 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 45 

Zanesville (Mrs. A. W. Perlej), written contempo- 
raneously with the letters just quoted, he says: 

"I am reviewing all my former studies in order 
to enter Brown University, Rhode Island, where 
an indulgent father intends me to go, in order to 
put a finish, or rather rub off the rough corners 
of his son's education — It makes me feel four 
cubits and a span higher than I ever was (and you 
know, I am not remarkably tall)." 

He has but little faith, if any, in the University 
in Athens, for he writes: 

"Going East! Think of that Julia, that's some 
recompense for sticking to Athens as long as its 
soul and body could hold together — For under- 
stand me, the College is the soul, — Athens, 
minus the college is the body — when the College 
goes the way of all the Earth, as it probably will, 
after this season, it leaves Athens, the body, de- 
funct." 

The town itself is uncongenial to him. He de 
scribes it as: "A murky, cloud-covered, uncomfort- 
able outpost upon the confines of Barbarism." 

Mr. Cox's wonderful power of description, often 
illustrated in later years, crops out in the follow- 
ing, one of his letters home from Athens : 

"The wind whistles without — the blackness of 
darkness shrouds the College, — O! how it roars 
amidst the old sycamores over Hocking; now it 
comes in gusts, fierce, scowling, piercing — ^slam! 
bang! bang! goes the doors of the empty rooms — 
rattle — rattle — goes the windows — whiz-z- goes 
the shrill winds — merrily dances my fire in the 
stove — merrily dances my pen on the paper." 

Another quotation must be given from an Ath- 



46 SAMUEL S.ULLIVAN COX 

ens letter for it is significant of his appreciation of 
tlie value of mental training. With reference to 
one of his friends at home he says: — 

"Does he still retain his reputation as one of the 
leaders of the Fashionable world? * * ♦ i 
would not care three straws how I dressed, what I 
eat or drink, provided I could revel sufficiently in 
my own thoughts. One can by a little training 
make a little world of their own thoughts, and 
place himself as regent over them. He can then 
shut himself in his room and say with Cnisoe, *I 
am lord of all I survey' — and not be tormented 
with a wish besides." 

A few months come and go and he is in Provi- 
dence, a student in Brown University. Under 
date of June 25, 1844, he writes to his father: — 

"I have now been here two months, and have 
fairly tested the college and the land of the Yan- 
kees, and I cannot but say, that I am still satisfied. 
Indeed, I came with the intention to be satisfied, 
and that is the great secret. » * * Although 
I have had not a little to discourage me, which I 
thought proper not to write, although there are 
numerous disadvantages and mortifications, al- 
ways attendent upon entering into a strange land, 
more than most persons would imagine, yet I still 
get along swimmingly." 

His reference to "Domestic Economy" in an 
earlier letter already quoted from, finds its count- 
erpart in the present communication. The ques- 
tion of finance is always an important one, and 
especially so to a college student. The details 
mentioned are not without interest as showing the 
expenditures of students in college half a century 
ago. He says: — 




i 



o y 



a. 
< 

(A 



e 



GO 
PS 

P a 
y 
fa 2 



2 



S 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 47 

"I had paid all my money, which was |10, before 
you wrote, to the tailor, shoemaker, and booksell- 
er, I had not money to pay my postage, or for my 
boot mending. But after paying the |10, which I 
borrowed, |1.00 to the shoemaker for my boots, 
$1.00 for a covering for my caput, and some other 
little fixtures, I have left about |T.50, my sum total 
in hand. The expenses will cost me more than I 
anticipated. My clothing, etc., which I always ob- 
tained at home, increases it considerably. Stu- 
dents here say that with the utmost parsimony, 
yon cannot get along (on) less than |250 per year, 
after buying all necessary preliminaries. It is ex- 
pensive here, I know, but to go to a college, re- 
quires money. The money ($7.50) I now have, will 
barely suffice to pay my washerwoman and other 
expenses at the close of the term." 

In the choice of a Greek-letter fraternity, the 
new student from Ohio gave the preference to the 
Delta Phi, whose invitation to become a member 
he accepted. 

In a letter to a sister, dated Brown University, 
Providence, November 25th, 1845, Mr. Cox gives 
his unique experience as a temperance lecturer. 
He was then in his Senior year. He writes : — 

"There was to be a grand temperance oratorio 
(about 40 singers), after the speaking (at Me- 
chanic's Hall), and the house was densely crowd- 
ed, mostly with females. The aisles were full — 
some 1,500 or 2,000 people present. I did not in- 
tend to speak — was standing up in the aisle with 
some students looking at the girls; when someone 
came pushing through with a little trunk in his 
hand, declaring he had to speak and must get 



48 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

through. 'Oho! Buckeye,' says I. 'Hallo! strang- 
er!' says he. 'Bear, or I am no Buckeye,' says I. 
'Right, young man — give us your hand — see this 
cane? John N. Bear on it.' 

" 'Cox is my name,' says I. The Buckeyes em- 
brace — push through the crowd, Cox in the lead. 
Everybody staring. I told the president of the 
meeting who was present. He had heard of me, 
and said I must speak too, and introduced the 
Buckeye Blacksmith. Well, I was stirred up — 
made a speech of 20 minutes — introduced Bear 
with a gusto. He made a perfect roarer of a 
speech, astonishing the people considerably. He 
got up a little respectability for me, after I had 
soft-soaped him — told about my taking him with 
a habeas corpus or something in his intemperate 
days — said I was Clerk of the Court at Zanesville, 
etc., etc. Last Monday I had a special invitation 
to lecture. I signed the pledge, and as the doctor 
was away with Dr. Judson, I prepared myself 
well; spoke 40 minutes to a very refined audience 
— was nicely complimented by the president — but 
that is my last one for some time. Our exhibition 
comes off Saturday. We have been practicing all 
the afternoon, and the way we are drilled!" In the 
same letter he more than once expressed a longing 
for pumpkin pies, such as he had at home. "I 
must say," he writes to his sister, "if I have a fail- 
ing, it is pumpkin-pieward." 

Of another college experience he writes: — 

"I made my debut here on the stage — spoke a 

part of my Fourier speech, which the Professor did 

not like as to the sentiment, but which brought 

down two rounds of applause from the students. I 



SAMUEL S,ULLIYAN COX 49 

never felt so elated in my life, my manner of 
speaking was so different and I pvit all my soul 
in it, (as I had written it myself and consequently 
felt what I said) and there was so much of the free 
and easy. Western stump-speech-manner about it 
that it took. The Professor told me not to speak 
any more such things as Fourierism, but said he 
saw some fine promises in my way of speaking. He 
did not know I wrote it, and as we are required to 
make selections from others till next term, he sup- 
posed it somebody else's. The students wanted to 
know where I got it, as there was considerable 
fun and novelty in it. I stopped once in the mid- 
dle, having forgotten the next sentence, and they 
commenced stamping, and it put me considerably 
out — and some, most fellows, would have been 
abashed and took their seats, but I stood it and at 
last got through. So much for my Entre! They 
think here I am an odd genius, I don't visit any 
body — stick to my room — mind my own business 
— walk as straight as a lightning rod, and as in- 
dependent as a woodchuck. I can put on all 
kinds of airs, and they will lay it all to Western 
manners and characteristics. They generally sup- 
pose we are mostly heathens out West, without 
refinement and taste for literature — and the speci- 
mens of Western students here, are by no means 
flattering." 

His classmate Mr. Frank W. Anthony of Mat- 
tawan, Mich., describes this incident as follows: — 

^'The class had been trained for nearly two years 
by our prim and precise Professor of Ehetoric, 
Professor Gammell, into his peculiar and polished 
style of speaking and writing. S.S. had doubtless 



50 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

had triumphs at the cross roads schoolhouse of the 
West. You can imagine the effect of his first 
speech in the college class upon Professor and stu- 
dents. It was the first stump speech any of us 
had heard. We all tried hard to control our risi- 
bles. It was impossible after a few sentences. I 
see now the determined look that came into the 
new student's face as the laugh grew louder and 
longer. It said, while he completed his speech, 
'laugh if you will, the power is in me and you shall 
yet respect it.' When completed he leaped from 
the platform, regardless of the steps, and made for 
his seat. As soon as Professor Gammell could 
control himself and the uproar, he said, 'It is cus- 
tomary. Cox, for the student to pause at the foot 
of the platform for criticism. We will excuse you 
this time. Next.' " 

Another class mate, the Rev. James C. Fletcher, 
writes : — 

"Cox liked to take a hand even in his student 
days in addressing a crowd; and on one occasion 
he made a stump speech to the assembled Demo- 
crats in Providence, R. I., in connection with 
Thomas W. Dorr, who in 1842 endeavored to 
change the old government of Rhode Island by 
forcible means — for which Dorr, being overwhelm- 
ingly defeated at the polls and elsewhere, had to 
suffer for it in prison. The Democrats as well as 
the old Whigs were overwhelmingly against Dorr. 
Nevertheless when agitation began in regard to 
liberating Dorr from the penitentiary, 'Sam' (as 
we called him), with the pluck that always char- 
acterized him, took the part of the small party, de- 
manding the pardoning of Dorr, and, actually, to 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 51 

the chagrin of the faculty (all Anti-Domtes) 
'Sam' addressed the 'untemfled' in the streets. 
'Sam' always took the part of the 'under dog' in 
the fight." 

Dr. Charles R. Cullen of Gaines Mills, Va., 
writes: — 

"We sat beside each other three years. While 
we were at Brown the Liberty party was forming 
and the Garrisons were in full blast. In the Meth- 
odist Church (the only denomination at that time 
very radical) Abbey Kelley, Abbey Folsom, S. S. 
Foster and Wendell Phillips were to speak. They 
abused Dr. Wayland, who was carrying on the 
controversy with Dr. Fuller, on the subject of 
Slavery, but could not tolerate the Garrison set. 
The doctor advised the students not to attend the 
meeting, as he knew they would commence by 
abusing himself, calling him anti-slavery hypo- 
crite, etc. This made the whole body of students 
decide to go and take possession of the meeting — 
to allow the Abolitionists to speak fifteen minutes 
and the students thirty minutes — to hiss them and 
applaud the students. Sam made a rousing speech 
— so did Dr. J. Wheaton Smith, now of Philadel- 
phia. Philips was severe on the students and told 
them they might be as silly as geese or venomous 
as serpents, he would speak if they staid till mid- 
night. We generally did for several nights." 

Cox freely gives his opinion of his associates. 
He says: 

"They judge of a fellow's respectability greatly 
by his dress here. * ♦ * There are some mon- 
strous mean fellows among the Yankees. Again 
there are some fine fellows — good — open-hearted 



52 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

—warm-hearted students— in my class. Some of 
the best families of N. E. and the Union are my 
classmates. A grandson of General Greene; a son 
of Com. Morris, of Washingion, D. C, Dr. Way- 
land's son; Professor Goddard's two sons." 

It will not be out of place at this point to con- 
trast some of the foregoing with opinions of his 
classmates on the young man from the west. It is 
true that they are of recent date and perhaps have 
been somewhat influenced by the lapse of time, — 
still they are of interest. 

Judge Franklin J. Dickman of Cleveland, Ohio, 
writes : — 

"I have a most distinct recollection of his per- 
sonality, as we entered Brown University almost 
at the same time, just before the Sophomore year 
closed in 1844. Entering as we did at that late 
day in the college course — he coming from Ohio 
and myself from Virginia — we were naturally 
drawn together as two interlopers, and in a short 
time became exceedingly well acquainted with 
each other. From his first entrance in college, he 
showed a marked proclivity to politics and politi- 
cal studies, and it was anticipated that he would 
have a distinguished political career. In the Lit- 
erary Society to which he belonged, he at once 
took rank as a leading debater, and always enliv- 
ened the debate by his overflowing wit and hu- 
mor. His mind worked with uncommon rapidity, 
and he was thereby enabled to find much time for 
general reading after preparing for the exercises 
of the class room. While his scholarship was 
creditable in the Greek and Latin classics, he 
stood especially prominent as an English belles- 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 53 

lettres scholar; and in the Junior and Senior years, 
he was awarded the first premium for excellence 
in English composition. But while he was en- 
dowed with great quickness and versatility in the 
acquisition of varied knowledge, he did not for- 
get that there is no excellence without much labor. 
No one ever saw him idle during study hours. He 
was a constant attendant at the University Lib- 
rary, and his chief pleasure seemed to be in gath- 
ering stores of information for future use." 

Judge Thomas Durfee, who, for many years was 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Is- 
land, says: 

"I knew Cox very well when he was in College. 
I think he did not enter until in the Sophomore 
year. He quickly made a strong impression. He 
was a superior student in the regular course of 
studies, buc did not limit himself to those studies, 
but pursued a wide course of reading outside of 
them. He wrote several prize essays, and was 
always successful in taking the first prize, I think, 
whenever he competed. He excelled especially in 
writing and oratory, and was even then an excel 
lent ex-tempore speaker and debater. His mind 
had already turned to politics and his aspirations 
were for a public career, such as he subsequently 
pursued. He was much sought after whenever an 
address was to be made. He was also very com- 
panionable and popular in a social way; very 
witty and ready in anecdote and repartee. It 
was generally felt, both by his classmates and 
others, that he would attain distinction.'' 

Of his career at Brown Universitv, Prof. Franci*^ 



54 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

AVayland, who now fills the chair of jurisprudence 
in Yale University, says: 

"Active in mind and body, capable of earnest 
and continuous study, yet delighting in fun and 
frolic, wholly unconventional in dress and deport- 
ment; a pronounced political partisan but not of- 
fensive in his frequent utterances — for he was al- 
ways 'on the stump' — 'Sam Cox' became, even be- 
fore the close of his first college year, the most 
prominent member of his class. His favorite 
field was the college debating society, from the 
meetings of which he was rarely absent. Prob- 
ably none of his comrades so often joined in the 
discussions. Undoubtedly in the Saturday after- 
noon debates at the 'United Brothers' he laid the 
foundation of that familiarity with parliamentary 
procedure and that readiness in impromptu ad- 
dress which characterized his long and distin- 
guished congressional career. All who knew him 
well during his college course — and his warm 
friendships were by no means confined to his own 
class — predicted for him a brilliant future." 

Dr. August Shurtleff of Brookline, Mass., 
writes: 

"Cox loined our class in the Sophomore year, 
and won our hearts at once. He was one of the 
most genial kind-hearted and witty men I ever 
knew. The Professors all liked him, and when he 
asked funny questions sometimes, never reproved 
him. I think he was about medium as a scholar, 
certainly not less. He was always talking poli- 
tics. I have a class-book in which my nearest 
friends wrote a sentiment over their autographs 
— It is before me now. He says, he has always 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 55 

been celebrated as an unterrifled Democrat. That 
there was a tradition in his family, that when he 
was born a scroll of fire was seen extending 
around the top of the bed-posts on which ap- 
peared the legend 'Vox populi Suprema Lex.' 
He looked like and always reminded me of Dr. 
OliTer Wendell Holmes and like hira showed his 
under teeth when he laughed, which was about 
all the time. He was a dear good fellow." 

It is clear that he was a favorite with his class- 
mates, and at the same time that his sterling qual- 
ities were appreciated by the faculty. 

Writes one of his classmates: "A persistent 
questioner of President Wayland in recitation in 
intellectual and moral philosophy, sometimes con- 
suming half the recitation hour in this almost mu- 
tual debate." 

Another has this testimony: "He was not only 
liked by his fellow students, but by the faculty, 
and I know that Dr. Francis Wayland thought 
very highly of him." 

President Wayland's regard for his pupil was 
thoroughly reciprocated. Indeed in after years, 
Mr. Cox gave full credit to his preceptor for the 
methodical way in which he prepared his speeches 
and books. 

Col. William Goddard, a well known merchant 
of Providence, E. I., and subsequent to 1888 the 
Chancellor of his alma mater, says: 

"When he came under the personal instruction 
of that great teacher. President Wayland, he dis- 
played such intellectual gifts and such originality 
of thought that Doctor Wayland was much drawn 



56 SAMUEL S^ULLIVAN COX 

towards him and loved to lead him into discus- 
sions upon the questions before the class." 

Writes Reuben A. Guild, Librarian of Brown: 
•'Mr. Cox's subject on graduating was 'Hero-Wor- 
ship.' I remember it to this day, and how elo- 
quent he was on the stage." 

As to his literary methods, Mr. Cox said to a 
friend : 

"Some of my work I have to write with my own 
hand. I find that when I have an elaborate de- 
scription to make or some very careful matter to 
prepare I can do it better by writing it myself. 
I do not begin my work until I am ready for it; 
and as you ask me the secret of my doing so much 
work I will tell you that it all lies in method and 
system. I went to school at Brown University 
and there came in contact with Dr. Wayland. 
The Doctor was a great advocate of thought anal- 
ysis, and he trained his students to make an out- 
line of everything they took up. In this way we 
were trained to think analytically, and I find that 
the moment I take up a subject the thoughts be- 
gin to fall into their appropriate places. In mak- 
ing a speech on the floor of the house I can see the 
end before I begin. Here in this book I made the 
skeleton before I wrote a chapter. I then out- 
lined the contents of the various chapters, and I 
am now filling in the flesh and polishing up the 
skin by dictation." 

A few statements concerning his class rank 
must be added. Dr. J. Wheaton Smith of Phila- 
delphia writes: 

"We were members of the same societies and 
near neighbors as to rooms at the University. He 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 57 

was a witty, genial fellow, but also a close and in- 
dustrious student, almost the only man I remem- 
ber of my college friends who objected on prin- 
ciple to light reading as a waste of time. Several 
of his vacations were spent in writing essays for 
college prizes, quite a number of which he cap- 
tured." 

On the other hand Mr. Frank W. Anthony 
writes : 

"He had apparently no ambition for high class 
standing, no taste for mathematics, and sought ev- 
ery opportunity to make speeches on any and all 
subjects. » * * » Speaking and writing 
were his especial pursuits. General scholarship 
in these lines rather than the college ruts. When 
he T^Tote his prize essay on the 'Fairy Queen' in 
his Junior year all conceded first prize to him from 
the start. So had he impressed his merits upon 
his classmates in a year from his entrance." 

Another classmate, Col. William Goddard, 
writes : 

"He came to Brown University to get an educa- 
tion and he got it. He made upon his classmates 
the impression of a very brilliant man and he was 
considered one of the ablest members of the class. 
In debate he was facile princeps. His essays and 
orations were truly original and brilliant. * * 
He graduated with honor and his name is always 
mentioned with respect by the few classmates 
who have survived the half century which has 
elapsed since we parted." 

The Rev. James C. Fletcher sums up his college 
career under the following four heads: 

"He was an earnest student, and stood well up in 



58 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

the first half of his class. Excelled in rhetorical 
studies. 

"He was exceedingly popular with both faculty 
and students. 

"He was cheerful, bubbling over with fun, but he 
impressed me most by his seriousness. 

"He was a man loyal to his college friendships, 
and was always full of sympathy." 

Honorable James B. Angell, president of the 
University of Michigan and lately Minister to 
Turkey, who entered Brown as a freshman, just as 
Mr. Cox was entering his Senior year, gives the 
following full and interesting account of his col- 
lege career: 

"As my college room was near Mr. Cox's, I soon 
had the pleasure not only of making his acquaint- 
ance, but also of being admitted to his friendship. 
This was a privilege which I greatly prized. He 
was then regarded as one of the most eminent 
writers, and by all odds as the most brilliant de- 
bater, in college. His style was already mature. 
It was terse, sparkling, and epigrammatic. His 
wit illumined his most weighty and serious 
speeches. It was always so free from malice that 
his opponents in debate could share in the enjoy- 
ment of it. As I was a member of the same de- 
bating society with him, the 'United Brothers,' 
and indeed largely through his influence was in- 
duced to join it, I frequently had the pleasure of 
hearing him take part in discussions. He was a 
regular attendant on the meetings, and rarely 
failed to participate in the debates. He improved 
every opportunity to train himself by practice in 
the art of public speaking. He readily accepted 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 59 

invitations which came to him from outside the 
college to address audiences on matters of public 
interest. On the fourth of July, 1846, he gave an 
oration before the college, which was considered 
one of his most successful and brilliant discours- 
es. He did not study for class rank, though his 
general scholarship was good. But no student 
worked more industriously. He gave most of his 
time, however, to the study of English and Ameri- 
can history and political economy. He was, I 
think, much impressed, as most students were, by 
the instruction he received from President Way- 
land, especially by the free trade doctrines set 
forth in the President's work on Political 
Economy. He seemed to be preparing him- 
self for entering on political life. He gave 
full promise of all he subsequently ac- 
complished in his public career. When he left 
college, we all confidently expected that he would 
attain to great eminence in public life. His at- 
tractive social qualities made him a great favorite 
in college. He was brimful of innocent fun. He 
had considerable skill with his pencil in carica- 
ture. He was an agile participant in the sports 
of the ball ground. Wherever one met him, 
whether in athletic contests, in social life, or in in- 
tellectual tournaments, there was an abounding 
vitality and effervescent good nature in him, 
which made him a most stimulating and enjoy- 
able companion. I am sure that all of his con- 
temporaries in college have cherished, as I cher- 
ished, the most pleasing recollections of their 
companionship with him in the days of his stu- 
dent life." 



60 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

The rnontli he completed his twenty-second year 
found Mr. Cox a graduate of Brown University 
with high honors. Both faculty and students pre- 
dicted for the young alumnus a brilliant future. 
He returned to Ohio to commence the real battle of 
life. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CHOOSING A CAREER. 



Samuel S. Cox's early experience in his father's 
office seems to have influenced him in his choice of 
the law for a profession. In a letter written home 
while he was a student in Athens, he says : — 

"Yesterday I wrote my Inaugural as President 
of the Athenian Society. My subject Law. There 
is nothing like fixing beforehand one's course of 
life. Everything great and little which will sub- 
serve the interests of the particular profession, 
will almost unknown be treasured up. I know a 
little more about the general principles, tendency, 
etc., etc., of Law (taken in its general sense) than 
I ever supposed. I am perfectly at home in it. It's 
my delight, I love it, and my every energy shall be 
bent toward it." 

It was during his college course that he actually 
began his law studies. With that systematic habit 
of making every moment tell, using time when 
others would waste it, he saw the possibility of 
employing a portion of one of his vacations in the 
active study of legal text books. In that connec- 
tion Judge Dickman writes: — 

"Between the close of the Senior year and the 
Commencement day in September, 1846, there was 
an interval of over two months in which the gradu- 
ating class was relieved from academic duty. 



62 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

During that time Mr. Cox would not seek relaxa- 
tion, but entered enthusiastically upon the study 
of law; and before Commencement day he told me 
he had read Blackstone's Commentaries, and a 
large part of Cruise's Digest. How thoroughly he 
could have accomplished so much reading in so 
short a time, it is not necessary to inquire. But it 
is evidence of the zeal he manifested in preparing 
to enter his chosen profession, through whose por- 
tals he desired to pass in achieving that political 
distinction of which he was ambitious." 

In this connection it is interesting to mention 
that even in his law studies he gives credit to Pres- 
ident Wayland, for he says: — 

"When I fstudied Blackstone, by the aid of my 
training in analysis I found that I could repeat al- 
most the whole of it in my own language, and 
since then, throughout the whole of my life, I have 
found analysis of the greatest advantage." 

On returning to Ohio after graduation he con- 
tinued his study of law, at first with Judge C. W. 
Searle in Zanesville, and then with Judge Con- 
vers of the firm of Godard & Convers, in whose 
office Mr. George Hoadley, afterwards governor of 
Ohio, was also a student. Later he removed to 
Cincinnati where he finished his legal studies un- 
der the Hon. Vachel Worthington. 

Having been admitted to the bar he formed a 
partnership with Mr. George E. Pugh, who after- 
wards represented Ohio in the United States Sen- 
ate. For two years he practiced law and made 
good headway in his profession. One testifies 
that "the thoroughness of his knowledge and his 
readiness as a speaker gave him great strength be- 
fore juries." 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 63 

The story of his first case in court is told as fol- 
lows by Captain John Duble, an officer in the fleet 
of river gunboats that assisted in repulsing the 
Confederate forces when they laid siege to Cincin- 
nati during the War of the Eebellion: — 

"A neighbor and I had a difference, which in- 
volved perhaps |25, and v/e mutually agreed to em- 
ploy counsel and settle it in Court. I didn't care 
much for the amount involved, and as little Sam 
Cox, as we called him, was a sturdy youngster, 
studying law, in a spirit of fun, and to see what 
was in him, I retained him. Little Sam sat up 
late at nights and worked like a Trojan to master 
the points of the case. He had some assistance 
from Stanley Matthews, later Justice of the Uni- 
ted States Supreme Court. 

"Young Cox had his legal guns well shotted at 
the convening of court. He was ambitious to win his 
first case, and this nerved him on in the struggle. 
Witnesses were examined, but when it came to 
making the plea he was a trifle timid and nervous. 
But as he warmed up he forgot the crowd, and 
when he reached his spread-eagle peroration he 
held them spell-bound. When he concluded, cheer 
after cheer rang through the old Justice Hall, such 
as had never been heard there before, and Little 
Sam was the hero of the hour." 

The peroration of this maiden speech was about 
as follows: — 

"Your Honor, I demand for my client only sim- 
ple justice. If you refuse him this you will violate 
every rule of jurisprudence — rules as old as juris- 
prudence itself — which have been left undisturbed 
by the storms of fate since the day when Julius 



64 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

Caesar planted his foot upon English soil, after the 
conquest of Gaul; since the first Indian explored 
the Western wilds of Ohio. Why, sir, refuse jus- 
tice to my client, and you will shake the taber 
nacle of his soul and cause him to tremble for the 
destinies of his country. /Your Honor, the case to 
me is as clear as the sun at noonday, when its 
beams penetrate, like shafts of living light, down 
to the bottom of the slumbering sea. The efful- 
gence of that heavenly orb can fathom the pro- 
foundest depths of the human heart and open wide 
its portals that we may read its secret workings. 

"Clear as that crystal sun the mind of man pene- 
trates the deep recesses of the brain, where are 
opened wide to his prophetic vision thoughts 
which enable him to look into the book of fate, and 
as he turns over the leaves of that musty volume — 
mildewed by the breath of Time — leaves which 
have been sealed to the gaze of man since crea- 
tion's earliest dawn, he half expects to hear the 
voices of oracles of the departed ages. Casting his 
mind's eye still backward he beholds the trillions 
passed away, and prophetic vision sees the untold 
billions of billions yet to come — all of whom had, 
and all will have, brightest hopes and aspirations 
fully equal to our own, and all uttering the uni- 
vei^sal cry of 'Justice !' 

"Justice, Your Honor, blended with mercy, 
should be set in diadem high as the midnight heav- 
ens, and surrounded by a halo of the brightest 
planets, there, in letters of living light, to shine 
perpetually, that the moon and stars, in their 
regular rounds, may pay obeisance and bow in de- 
votion to those talismanic words, 'Justice and 
Mercy.' 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 65 

"Sir, the heathen Hottentot and the American 
savage have those heavenly attributes engrafted 
upon every principle of life and action. They be- 
hold it in the sun, moon and stars; they hear it in 
eveiy wind that blows. It will be the Magna 
Charta of all generations of men. Why, sir, in- 
spiration and poetry spring from thoughts of jus- 
tice and mercy. For, blended with these is the 
poetry of heaven, when, in the gorgeousness of 
light, the sun proclaims, voiced as with a golden 
lyre, the powers of the eternal ; or at night, when 
the moon and stars give forth, in silvery accents, 
the same adoring hymn. In these we find the 
poetry of the sea, when it speaks in rippled meas- 
ure or thunders in the voice of its own rebounding 
billows; or in the storm, or in the green fields, in 
waving woods and delightful gardens. 

"Your Honor, justice is what I demand from 
you, that justice with which Armand de Richelieu 
ruled France for 15 years, when he held her to his 
bosom in the dreadful strifes which desolated her 
— held her there, pillowed upon justice. Why, 
sir, thoughts fly through my brain in numbers like 
as blades of grass upon our boundless Western 
prairies, thickly as the hosts of Lucifer when he 
marshaled his forces upon the seashore to attack 
the angels — in numbers as many as the autumnal 
leaves that strew the rippled brooks on my own 
classic Muskingum." /f 

It is needless to add that Cox won the case, and 
as Captain Duble puts it "with hands down." He 
adds: "The opposing counsel simply stated to the 
Court that Cox had fairly covered the ground, and 
that he had nothing to say, except that he knew 



66 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

His Honor would decide the case by the strict rule 
of justice. Immediately the Magistrate decided in 
our favor, throwing costs upon the defendant." 
In regard to the fee Captain Duble says : — 
"I asked Cox what his fee was. With blushing 
modesty and timidity he asked: ^Is |5 too much?' 
I felt like pounding the young rascal, and con- 
cluded that he would never make a lawyer if his 
charges were like that. 'Young man,' said I, 'you 
do not know the first principles of your profession. 
You don't know how to charge. Here, take the 
whole amount awarded by the Court.' That first 
case had a great deal to do with the subsequent 
career of the great Sunset Cox." 




■z. ^ 

< S 



X 

3 ^ 



CHAPTER V. 



HIS MARRIAGE AND TRIP TO EUROPE. 

On one of his trips from Zanesville to Brown he 
was fortunate in securing the only vacant seat in 
a stage coach that had been chartered for New 
York by a party, among whom was Miss Julia A. 
Buckingham, who with her brother was about to 
spend the summer in New Hampshire. There is 
no record of what happened on that journey, but 
it is stated that whenever the young lady alighted 
from the stage to walk up the hills, the custom of 
the day, the student remained inside the stage; 
and when she remained he alighted. 

When questioned about it the young lady, with 
an amused smile, remarked, "Oh! I only noticed 
that when I alighted from the stage for a short 
and restful promenade, the youth always re- 
mained inside the stage, and vice versa." 

On his return to Zanesville, however, the ac- 
quaintance was renewed, and when he had com- 
pleted his legal studies he sought her hand in mar- 
riage. The consent of the young lady was soon 
obtained, and the marriage ceremony took place 
in Zanesville, on October 11, 1849. 

The Honorable Proctor Knott in his eulogy of 
Mr. Cox beautifully and truthfully describes the 
relations of this most devoted husband and wife. 
Said Mr. Knott:— 



68 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

"Fortunate as he was in many respects, infinite- 
ly beyond the average of his race, Mr. Cox found 
the crowning blessing of his beautiful life in the 
affectionate devotion and genial companionship 
of his gifted and loving wife. Pure in spirit as 
thrice sifted snow, sweet in disposition as the 
breath of new blown roses, gentle in manner as 
the evening zephyr dallying with the violet's eye, 
faithful to every obligation, and cheerful in the 
discharge of every duty that affection, humanity, 
or religion impose, she was, as she is to-night, the 
perfection of the highest, holiest type of noble 
womanhood. To her devoted husband she was in- 
deed the pearl beyond all price. His constant 
companion, his truest friend, his trusted adviser 
in all things, she was to him a crown of glory 
and a song of rejoicing throughout all the days of 
their married life. She shared all his high am- 
bitions and gloried in his successes. Her gentle 
hand supported him in the dark hours of sorrow, „ 
and her loving smile gave a loA^elier glow to the p 
bright rays of returning joy. Hand in hand they\ ^, 
trod life's journey together, strewing its pathway 
with the rich jewels of gentleness and charity, un- I 
til in the full flush of his fame, Avith his blushing I 
honors thick upon him he w^as beckoned to a 
brighter clime, to the real 'Wonderland,' whither \ 
he is wooing her in the soft, sweet music of an an- 
gel's whisper." 

A few months after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Cox sailed for Europe — a rare trip in those days. 
It was the year of the World's Exposition in Lon- 
don — the first of its kind in the world's history. 
They reached Liverpool on the night of ]May 17, 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 69 

1851. They returned in the September following. 
Meanwhile they had made a tour through France, 
Italy, Germany, Belgium, Scotland, England and 
Ireland, with "delightful sojournings at Rome, 
Naples, Malta, Venice, Athens, Smyrna, Constanti- 
nople, Geneva and amid the Alps, and observa- 
tions along the Mediterranean, amidst the Isles of 
Greece." Under the title "A Buckeye Abroad," 
Mr. Cox, on his return, published a delightful vol- 
ume of reminiscence of his journey — a volume that 
met with such favor that it went into the eighth 
edition. 

In an introduction to the seventh edition he 
wrote: — 

"Since it w^as issued, in 1852, there have been 
six editions published ; and although frequent ap- 
plications have been made for it, especially in the 
West, it has been impossible for me to supply the 
demand." 

Some one wrote: "His Buckeye Abroad is an ex- 
cellent book for dyspeptics." 



OHAPTEK VI. 



AS AN EDITOR. 



In his preface to the first edition of "A Buckeye 
Abroad," Mr. Cox says : "The pleasure of traveling 
was enhanced by companionship. We numbered 
four in our company, two ladies and a gentleman, 
Mr. Philo Buckingham, and myself — just the num- 
ber for convenience and unity of movement, as 
well as for pleasure. The time, too, was propitious. 
The year 1851 may be truly called annus mirabilis, 
at least so far as travelers were concerned. The 
Great Exhibition — that novel phase of our civil- 
ization — was enough to entitle the year to the 
honor, as a special wonder." The favor with 
which this fascinating story of travel was received 
by the public, led the friends of its gifted author 
to urge him to abandon the law for the more con- 
genial field of journalism. Acting on their ad- 
vice Mr. Cox purchased, in 1853, a controlling in- 
terest in the Columbus "Statesman," the organ, at 
the State capital, of the Democracy, assuming in 
person its editorial conduct. As an editorial 
writer he proved, as was to have been expected, 
vigorous, original and brilliant. He was no novice 
with his pen. During his course at Brown Uni- 
versity he had contributed both prose and verse to 
newspapers and periodicals. His first effort . at 
magazine writing was for the old "Knickerbocker" 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 71 

while he was yet at college. It was an article de- 
scriptive of the river on whose banks he was born 
— the Muskingum — with an account of the Mo- 
ravian massacre at Gnadenhutten which took 
place at the time of the War of the Revolution. 
While at Brown, too, he had carried off prizes in 
classics, in history, in poetic criticism, and in po- 
litical economy; his theme on this last subject be- 
ing "The Repeal of the Corn Laws." In this essay 
he took ground, which he ever afterward main- 
tained, in support of the liberalitie« of commerce 
against the "American system" of bounties for a 
few from the many. 

As editor of the "Statesman," Mr. Cox, then un- 
der thirty years of age, became at once an ac- 
knowledged power in the politics of his State. In 
the treatment of the issues of the day he was 
strong and vigorous and, withal, refreshingly 
original. 

It was while he was in the editorial chair at Co^ 
lumbus that the sobriquet "Sunset" was conferred 
upon him, a sobriquet fitting his initials and cling- 
ing to him thereafter all his days. It came as a 
sequel to an exceedingly picturesque description 
from the editor's pen, of a glorious sunset. This 
description, under the caption "A Great Old Sun- 
set," appeared in the Statesman May 19, 1853, and 
read as follows: 

"What a stormful sunset was that 
of last night! How glorious the 
storm and how splendid the setting 
of the sun! We do not remember 
ever to have seen the like on our 
round globe. The scene opened in 



72 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

the we«t, with a whole horizon full of 
golden impenetrating lustre, which 
colored the foliage and brightened 
every object in its own rich dyes. 
The colors grew deeper and richer, 
until the golden luster was trans- 
formed into a storm-cloud, full of 
finest lightning, which leaped in 
dazzling zigzags all around and over 
the city. The wind arose with fury, 
the slender shrubs and quaint trees 
made obeisance to its majesty. Some 
even snapped before its force. The 
strawberry beds and grass plots 
^turned up their whites' to .seeZephy- 
rus march by. As the rain came, 
and the pools formed, and the gut- 
ters hurried away, thunder roared 
grandly, and the fire-bells caught the 
excitement and rung with hearty 
chorus. The south and east received 
the copious showers, and the west all 
at once brightened up in a long, pol- 
ished belt of azure, worthy of a Sici- 
lian sky. Presently a cloud appeared 
in the azure belt, in the form of a 
castellated city. It became more 
vivid, revealing strange forms of 
peerless fanes and alabaster tem- 
ples, and glories rare and grand in 
this mundane sphere. It reminds 
us of Wordsworth's splendid verse in 
his Excursion: — 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 73 

The appearance instantaneou'sly disclosed 
Was of a mlg'hty city, boldly say 
A wilderness of buildings, sinking far 
And self- withdrawn into a wondrous depth. 
Far siinldng into splendor without end. 

"But the city vanished only to 
give place to another isle, where the 
most beautiful forms of foliage 
appeared, imaging a paradise in 
the distant and purified air. The 
sun, wearied of the elemental com- 
motion, sank behind the green plains 
of the west. The 'great eye in heav- 
en,' however, went not down with- 
out a dark brow hanging over its de- 
parting light. The rich flush of the 
unearthly light had passed and the 
rain had ceased; when the solemn 
church bells pealed; the laughter of 
children, out in the air and joyous 
after the storm, is heard with the 
carol of birds; while the forked and 
purple weapon of the skies still 
darted illuminations around the 
Starling College, trying to rival its 
angles and leap into its dark win- 
dows. Candles are lighted. The 
piano strikes up. We feel that it is 
good to have a home — good to be on 
the earth where such revelations 
of beauty and power may be made. 
And as we cannot refrain from re- 
minding our readers of everything 
wonderful in our city, we have begun 
and ended our feeble etching of a 



74 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

sunset which comes so rarely, that 
its glory should be committed to im- 
mortal type." 

This vivid description has been criticised as be- 
ing too florid, but critics are not always just. Sir 
John McDonald, the eminent Canadian statesman, 
when describing a sunset of phenomenal beauty, 
in a letter to the Toronto Globe, quotes the entire 
article *by Mr. Cox, and refers to it as follows: — 

"This has been thought to be highly imagina- 
tive. Doubtless it is. None but a man of fertile 
and poetic imagination could write it. It has been 
thought to be greatly exaggerated, if not unreal. 
I did not see it, and of it I cannot speak, but, hav- 
ing read the description over most carefully sev- 
eral times, it contains nothing which I cannot con- 
ceive as being perfectly possible; for had the cas- 
tellated city, of which he speaks, appeared in the 
azure belt, and had this in vanishing given place 
to 'another isle, where the most beautiful forms of 
foliage appeared, imaging a paradise in the distant 
and purified air,' even these forms wondrous as 
they must have appeared to one of his poetic im- 
agination, would not have equalled the glory and 
the grandeur of the sight which we were privi- 
leged to behold. For to us it appeared that fae 
very portals of heaven were opened, which led not 
to the castellated city which presented itself to the 
imagination of Congressman Cox, but to that 
*great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of 
heaven from God, and her light was like unto a 
stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear 
as crystal.' I was better able to understand what 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 75 

others had written on the same subject by reason 
of what I had seen. When Humbolt was pursuing 
his investigations in Camana he thus wrote: 'There 
the sun does not only shed light upon a landscape,' 
as with us, 'but it gives a coloring to the different 
objects; it enfolds them, without destroying their 
transparency, with a light which makes their col- 
oring more harmonious, and spreads a repose over 
nature/ 

"But chiefly am I glad that it is in my power, by 
my own humble testimony, to rescue the descrip- 
tion of Congressman Cox from the charge of exag- 
geration and unnaturalness put forth by some, and 
to express my owm thanks that the description of 
'A Great Old Sunset' was ever penned by one so 
gifted — a description which will be perfectly in- 
telligible to all who may be permitted to look upon 
the glory of the setting sun under conditions simi- 
lar to those witnessed by us at Labouchere Bay." 



CHAPTER VII. ■ 

ENTERS THE ARENA OF POLITICS. 

With the mantle of editor of the leading Demo- 
cratic organ of the State, came the mantle also of 
party leadership. The chairman of the Ohio Dem- 
ocratic State Committee, in 1853, was Washington 
McLean, the proprietor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, 
one of Mr. Cox's earliest and staunchest friends. 
Chairman McLean, anxious to be relieved of the 
responsibilities incident to the conduct of the cam- 
paign, resigned the chairmanship upon the con- 
dition that Mr. Cox accept the place and direct the 
canvass. William Medill was the Democratic 
candidate for Governor. The opposing candidates 
were Barrere, Whig, and Lewis, Free Soiler. Mr. 
Cox threw himself into the campaign with all his 
characteristic vigor and energy. Never, it is said, 
were his tireless industry and his marvelous ver- 
satility better displayed. Besides doing the execu- 
tive work of the committee of which he was the 
head, he took the stump, electrifying the masses 
by his eloquent reasoning, or convulsing them 
with his keen wit, and, withal, not neglecting to 
enforce the Democratic doctrine through the edi- 
torial page of his newspaper. His resources 
seemed to be inexhaustible. Overwhelming vic- 
tory crowned his efforts — Medill being elected 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 77 

Governor by a majority over all of 11,497, and a 
plurality over the Whig candidate of 61,843. 

By the prestige thus gained the young editor 
and stump orator was, in spite of himself, fairly 
launched upon the tempestuous sea of politics. In 
the words of another, young, quick-witted, ready, 
energetic, ardent, earnest, talented, graceful, and 
accomplished, no man was more fitted to win the 
plaudits of the people. He was the rising young 
statesman of the Buckeye State. His fame spread 
to Washington, and thither he was summoned by 
President Pierce. It was Mr. Cox's first visit to 
the National capital. President Pierce took a 
great liking to the brilliant Buckeye, and, in 1855, 
tendered him the post of Secretary of Legation at 
the Court of St. James. This honor was declined, 
Mr. Cox preferring, for reasons of his own, the less 
exalted post of Secretary to the Peruvian legation. 
The President freely acquiesced, and Mr. Cox 
sailed for Peru. Overtaken, however, by alarm- 
ing illness at Aspinwall, enroute to his post, it was 
not deemed prudent for him to proceed further. 
Accordingly, as soon as able, he returned to the 
United States and resigned his commission. 
Thirty years — three decades big with the fate of 
the nation — were destined to pass before his re- 
entry into his country's diplomatic service, as 
Minister to Turkey. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 



The turning point in Mr. Cox's life had come. 
A new career was opening before him, one in 
which he was to achieve a memorable and a 
unique success — one which was to link his name 
with the most eventful chapters of American his- 
tory, and emblazon his fame on its brightest pages. 
Samuel Sullivan Cox was about to enter the na- 
tional House of Kepresentatives. It was the year 
1856. The Republican party, as if having sprung, 
like Minerva, full-armed from the brain of Jove, 
although less than a year old, had already de- 
veloped a strength which struck consternation 
into the heart of the ancient democracy. John C. 
Fremont, the "Pathfinder," was the Republican 
standard bearer, and to his standard the young 
men of the country in particular were flocking in 
serried hosts. The venerable James Buchanan, 
an old public functionary whose services to his 
country dated back for decades, was the democra- 
cy's candidate for President. The spirit of sec- 
tionalism was deeply stirred. The Democratic 
leaders plainly saw that if they were to retain the 
citadel of power, which they had captured four 
years before, no stone was to be left unturned. 
Everywhere they were putting the best foot for- 
ward. In the capital district of Ohio they in- 



SAMUEL S,ULLIYAN COX 79 

stinctivelv turned to the young and briliant lead- 
er, the eloquent orator and able editor, Samuel 
Sulliyan Cox. Him they asked to be their candi- 
date for Congress; and he accepted. J^amuel Gal- 
loway was his Kepublican opponent, while Mr. 
Stanberry was the candidate of what was left of 
the old "American" party, now mainly merged 
into the new Republican body. The campaign 
was both exciting and bitter. Mr. Cox was 
elected by a plurality over Galloway of 355 votes. 
He was now thirty-two years old, but he had an 
equipment for the duties before him in education, 
in experience of public affairs, and in general 
adaptation, possessed by few young men of his 
era. 

Among Mr. Cox's papers is an autograph letter 
from Franklin Pierce, written to the youthful Con- 
gressman from his New Hampshire home a few 
months after his retirement from the Presidency. 
Incidentallly the letter reveals the '*high hope" 
entertained of the national career upon which he 
was about to enter, by the veterans of the Demo- 
cratic party. Writes ex-President Pierce: — 
"Eockingham House, Portland, N. H., 

"September 15, 1857. 

"My Dear Sir: — Accept my thanks for your kind 
note of the 3d inst., and also for your admirable 
address at Providence. I was deeply touched by 
your noble tribute to Governor Marcy. It was 
well earned by a long, useful, eventful life. 

"I shall probably go to Cuba for the winter with 
the anticipation of improvement to Mrs. Pierce's 
health — but you must let me hear from you fre- 
quently after you enter upon your Congressional 
career, to which I shall look with interest and 
high hope. Very truly your friend, 

"Franklin Pierce.'* 

"Hon. Samuel S. Cox. Columbus, Ohio." 



CHAPTER IX. 

EIGHT YEARS AN OHIO REPRESENTATIVE. 

March 4, 1857, the day that witnessed the inau- 
guration of James Buchanan as President of the 
United States, the last of the ante-bellum line of 
chief magistrates, also ushered into national public 
life Samuel Sullivan Cox. It was midway of his 
career. Then thirty-two years old he had before 
him other thirty-two years which were to be spent 
mainly before the footlights of that great national 
theatre, the House of Representatives. It was 
the Thirty-fifth Congress. The new wings of the 
Capitol were nearing their completion, and to the 
Thirty-fifth Congress was to fall the honor of first 
occupying the new quarters. 

With a Democratic President the country had 
returned a Democratic House of Representatives. 
The choice of Speaker fell upon James L. Orr, of 
South Carolina. In the distribution of committee 
chairmanships Mr. Cox, although a new member 
was not forgotten. He was placed at the head of 
R^evolutionary Claims. Events contributed to 
bring the representative of the Capital district of 
Ohio into early and unexpected prominence, and, 
moreover, to signal to the world his independence 
of character and his moral courage. Environment 
added to the dramatic interest of the occasion. 

The first session of the new Congress opened De- 
cember 7, 1857, in the old hall of Representatives. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 81 

On the 16th of that month the House bade adieu 
to the old hall, with all its historic associations, 
and took possession of its new chamber in the 
south wing of the Capitol, the same it occupies to- ^ j^ 

day. To "Sunset" Cox, as it chanced, fell the j iTi^' '^ "-^ ' 
honor of making the maiden speech in the new J 
chamber. And to the consternation of the vet- 
eran leaders of his party who listened, that speech 
was a gauntlet thrown to the new administration, 
which he himself had zealously helped to place in 
power! The issue on which this young member 
had the temerity to lock horns with the party's 
President, at the very threshold of his term, was 
the Lecompton constitution. To the admission of 
Kansas into the union under that pro-slavery con- 
stitution President Buchanan was committed. 
The opposition thereto was led by the "little 
giant" of the senate, Stephen A. Douglas, with 
"popular sovereignty" for his shibboleth. In the 
memorable conflict then just beginning, a conflict 
that resulted in the rupture of the party and its 
defeat at the polls three years later, Samuel S 
Cox was an able lieutenant of Judge Douglas. 
His was the first speech made in the House of Rep- 
resentatives against the Lecompton Constitution. 
It was the keynote. By it the line was closely 
drawn, on the one or the other side of which the 
Democrats the country over ere long arrayed 
themselves in frowning attitude. 

Of that speech and the scene attending its de- 
livery, the author in his "Three Decades of Fed- 
eral Legislation," says: 

"The 16th of December, 1857, is memorable in 
the annals of the United States. Looking back to 



82 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

that day, the writer can see the members of the 
House of Representatives take up the line of 
march out of the old shadowy and murmurous 
Chamber into the new Hall, with its ornate and 
gilded interior. The scene is intense in a rare 
dramatic quality. Around sit the members upon 
richly carved oaken chairs. Already arrayed upon 
either side are the sections in mutual animosity. 
The Republicans take the left of the Speaker, the 
Democrats the right. James L. Orr, of South Caro- 
lina, a full, roseate-faced gentleman, of large 
build and ringing metallic voice, is in the chair. 
James C. Allen, of Illinois, sits below him in the 
Clerk's chair. The Eev. Mr. Carothers offers an 
appropriate and inspiring prayer, A solemn hush 
succeeds the invocation. After some legislative 
routine the members retire to the open space in the 
rear to await the drawing of seats. A page with 
bandaged eyes makes the award, and one by one 
the members are seated. Then by the courtesy of 
the chairman of the Printing Committee (Mr. 
Smith, of Tennessee), a young member from Ohio 
is allowed to take the floor. He addresses the 
Speaker with timidity and modesty amid many in- 
terruptions by Humphrey Marshall, Thomas S. 
Bocock, Judge Hughes, George W. Jones, and 
General Quitman, each of whom bristles with 
points of order against the points of the speaker. 
But that young member is soon observed by a 
quiet House. Many listen to him, perhaps to 
judge of the acoustic qualities of the Hall, some 
because of the nature of the debate. And then 
after a few minutes all become excited. Again 
and again the shrill tones of Mr. Speaker Orr are 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 83 

heard above the uproar. He exclaims: 'This is a 
motion to print extra copies of the President's 
message. Debate on the subject is therefore in 
order, upon which the gentleman from Ohio has 
the floor.' That gentleman is now the writer. His 
theme was the Lecompton constitution. As the 
questions discussed involved the great issues lead- 
ing to war or peace his interest in the mis-en- 
scene became less. But his maiden speech — the 
maiden speech in the new chamber — began under 
circumstances anything but composing." 

Judge Holman, of Indiana, said of this speech, 
on the floor of Congress: "It was one of the ablest 
and, under all the circumstances, the most cour- 
ageous speech ever delivered in Congress . In 
words of burning eloquence he denounced the 
proposed Constitution as not expressing the will of 
the people of Kansas, and therefore as violative of 
their right to form and control their local govern- 
ment. That speech, placing him at the very outset 
of his Congressional career in antagonism to the 
administration as well as many of his political 
friends, opened up one of the greatest debates in 
the records of Congress." It resulted in the Le- 
compton constitution being referred to the people 
of Kansas, who promptly rejected it. At a later 
day Mr. Cox had the satisfaction of voting for the 
admission of Kansas into the family of States un- 
der a Free-state Constitution adopted by the peo- 
ple. This was one of the most signal triumphs of 
Mr. Cox's long public life. The President took his 
small revenge on Mr. Cox, by removing from the 
Postmastership of Columbus the friend whose ap- 
pointment Mr. Cox had secured. He had, however, 



84 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

in co-operation with Judge Douglas, saved the 
Democratic party from the ineffable disgrace of 
foisting upon the people of Kansas, in spite of 
their protests, a constitution upholding the insti- 
tution of slavery in that territory. In his Three 
Decades Mr. Cox, referring to the far reaching 
consequences of this conflict, says: "Had the Demo- 
cratic party which came into power with Mr. 
Buchanan and the Thirty-fifth Congress united in 
wisdom to thrust aside the Lecompton constitu- 
tion, there would have been no distraction in its 
ranks as early as 1860. But it is not so sure that 
the slavery question would not have come in some 
form to have kept up the irrepressible conflict. 
Had they thus united, perhaps the Charleston con- 
vention of 1860 would have agreed." 

He was re-elected, to the Thirty-sixth Congress, 
by a majority of 647 over Mr. Case, Republican. It 
was an emphatic endorsement of his position on 
theKansas question, an endorsement given after 
"a campaign," to use Mr. Cox's words, 
"unexampled for its unprovoked fierceness, 
its base and baseless charges of personal corrup- 
tion, its conceit, its ignorance, its impudence, its 
poltroonery, its billingsgate, its brutality, its 
monied corruption, its fanatical folly, its unflag- 
ging slang, its drunken saturnalia, and its unblush- 
ing libels and pious hypocrisy. In spite of all 
this," he added, "the people doubled my majority 
of 1856." The prestige gained by Mr. Cox in his 
first Congress, his reputation for fearlessness and 
independence, as well as ability and eloquence, 
easily made him a leader in his second term. He 
was still, however, at war with the administra- 
tion, co-operating with S^tephen A. Douglas, the 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 8 5 

great leader of the Northern Democracy in the 
Senate. The Democrats saw the first fruits of 
their dissensions in the loss of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. After a protracted struggle for the 
Speakership, in which John Sherman of Ohio was 
side-tracked because he had unwittingly endorsed 
Hilton Rowan Helper's book, "The Impending 
Crisis," the mantle fell upon William Pennington, 
a Conservative Republican from New Jersey. 
During this Congress, which came into being 
March 4, 1859, and expired March 4, 1861, 
the lines of sectionalism grew more and 
more distinct. The rumblings of the awakened 
volcano came louder and louder, and it was evi- 
dent, at the last of this Congress, that the eruption 
was at hand. In the fierce passions of the hour*" 
personal conflict was often narrowly avoided, and 
once at least there was actual personal collision 
on the floor of the House. The parties thereto were 
Keith of South Carolina and Grow of Penn- 
sylvania. Mr. Cox, who was a witness of the en- 
counter, thus describes it: — 

"It is after the hour of midnight. The passions 
of the time are incarnate in that Congress and at 
that hour. See the fierce clutch and glaring eye, 
and the struggle between these heady champions! 
Now, after nearly three decades I see, trooping- 
down the aisles of memory, as then there came 
trooping down the aisles of the House, the belliger- 
ents, with Washburn, of Illinois, and Potter, of 
Wisconsin, leading one extreme, and Barksdale 
and Lamar, of Mississippi, the other. Then came 
the melee, the struggle; the pale face of the 
Speaker calling for order; the Sergeant-at-Arms 



86 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

rushing into the area before the Speaker's desk 
with the mace as his symbol of authority. Its sil- 
ver eagle moves up and down on the wave of pas- 
sion and conflict. Then there is a dead hush of the 
hot heart and the glare of defiance across the Hall. 
As this scene is revivified, looking at it through the 
red storm of the war, there is epitomized all that 
has made that war bloody and desperate." 

Of this Congress, which met for its first ses- 
sion December 5, 1859, Mr. Cox says: "Considered 
by results it was, perhaps, the most important 
congregation of men that ever assembled upon 
our continent. It held the destinies of our institu- 
tions and races in the hollow of its hand." It was 
during the life of this Congress, in 1860, that the 
Charleston convention, in the spring of that year, 
witnessed the formal disruption of the Democratic 
party, followed by the presentation of two candi- 
dates for the Presidency, and the consequent tri- 
umph of Kepublicanism in the election of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. "On a gloomy day in March, 1861," 
testifies Mr. Cox, "the Thirty-sixth Congress ad- 
journs sine die. There are many sad and last fare- 
wells — for the pall of impending wrath hangs 
over all the land. Black clouds of war loom up all 
around, surcharged with the elements of death and 
devastation." 

Mr. Cox had again been re-elected to Congress. 
His opponent in 1860 was his opponent of 1856, 
Samuel Galloway. Despite the flood-tide of 
Northern sentiment for Lincoln's election to the 
Presidency, and despite Democratic divisions, 
Mr. Cox defeated Galloway by a majority of 883. 
It was more than a political triumph : it was a per- 
sonal tribute of a pronounced type. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 87 

The Thirty-seventh was the first war Congress. 
It was ushered in with the inauguration of Lin- 
coln. Within fifty days the war clouds which had 
been so long gathering, burst; Sumpter fell; and 
the President had called the new Congress in ex- 
traordinary session to provide ways and means for 
saving the Union from threatened destruction. 
The extra session opened on July 4, 1861, a date 
whose associations were doubtless intended to add 
any needed stimulus to the patriotic uprising 
which followed the attack on Fort Sjumpter. The 
great Southern leaders of previous Congresses 
were conspicuous by their absence. They had, as 
a rule, followed their States into the vortex of 
secession. Mr. Cox, in the previous congress, had 
clearly seen the drift of events, and warned his 
countrymen of the South in impassioned elo- 
quence, to desist. "In Washington's sacred 
name," he had pleaded in the winter before, while 
State after State was joining the procession out of 
the Union, "and on behalf of a people who have 
ever heeded his warning and never wavered in the 
just defense of the South or of the North, I ap- 
peal to Southern men who contemplate a step so 
fraught with hazard and strife, to pause. Clouds 
are about us! There is lightning in their frown! 
Cannot we direct it harmlessly to the earth? The 
morning and evening prayer of the people I speak 
for in such weakness, rises in strength to that Su- 
preme Kuler who, in noticing the fall of a sparrow, 
cannot disregard the fall of a nation, that our 
States may continue to be — as they have been — 
one; one in the essence of a national being ;one as 
the thought of God is One! 

"These emblems above us, in their canopy of 



88 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

beauty, each displaying the symbol of State inter- 
est, State pride, and State sovereignty, let not one 
of them be dimmed by the rude breath of passion, 
or effaced by the ruder stroke of enmity. They all 
shine, like stars, differing in glory, in their many- 
hued splendors, by the light of the same orb, even 
as our States receive their lustre from the Union, 
vrhich irradiates and glorifies each and all." Hav- 
ing fruitlessly labored to avert secession in the 
Thirty-sixth Congress, Mr. Cox came to the extra 
session of the Thirty-seventh Congress prepared to 
sustain the administration of Lincoln in every con- 
stitutional endeavor to put down the rebellion. 
/Judge Holman of Indiana, the intimate friend 
/and associate for so many years of Mr. Cox, bears 

/ this testimony : — 

/ "When the Thirty-sixth Congress adjourned, on 
the 4th day of March, 1861, Mr. Cox and I started 
homeward. We were detained a day at Wheel- 
ing, Va. We spent the day together, talking over 
the impending conflict. We both knew, as all men 
did, that war was inevitable. What position we 
should take as Democrats in Congress in relation 
to the coming war, when it came, was considered 
from every standpoint. There was no hesitation 
on the part of either of us. The Union must be 
maintained at every hazard. No vicissitude of for- 
tune in the conflict of arms should justify ever the 
consideration of the question of the dissolution of 
the Union. The administration of President Lin- 
coln in every measure deemed necessary or proper 
to uphold the Federal authority in all the States 
of the Union should be cordially sustained. The 
records of Congress during the war attest how 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 89 

\ faithfully Mr. Cox adhered to that determination." 

Between the dates of Lincoln's inauguration 
and the opening of the extra session the country 
had been shocked by the sudden death of Stephen 
A. Douglas. On no one fell the loss more heavily 
than on Samuel S. Cox. The eulogy of the depart- 
ed statesman by his long-time faithful friend in 
the House, was affectingly eloquent, drawing tears 
from those who listened to it. 

Mr. Douglas' death at so critical a juncture of 
affairs, when his counsel and influence were es- 
pecially needed, was deemed a great public loss. 
"Who," asked his eulogist, "is left to take his 
place? Alas! he has no successor. His eclipse is 
painfully palpable, since it makes more obscure 
the path by which our alienated brethren may re- 
turn." 

Mr. Cox was now serving his third term, as Rep- 
resentative of a district normally Republican. In 
each contest, desperate efforts had been made to 
effect his defeat, but all to no purpose. The happy 
thought occurred to the legislature to apply the 
gerrymander to the capital district of Ohio, and 
see how that would work as a political agency. In 
the new district Samuel Shellabarger, credited 
with exceptional strength as a candidate, entered 
the lists against the young but, in point of service, 
already veteran member. Again, however, Mr. 
Cox was elected, although his majority was, 
through the process referred to, cut down to 272. 

A glimpse of "war times" on the border between 
the contending armies is afforded by the follow- 
ing private note from the venerable Kentucky 
statesman, Hon. J. J. Crittenden, acknowledging 



90 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

an invitation from Mr. Cox to make his home at 
Columbus his refuge during the rebel raids of Ken- 
tucky. Under date Louisville, September 26, 1862, 
he wrote: — 

"Soon after I was compelled to leave my home 
and come to this place to avoid falling into the 
hands of the Eebels, I received from the Hon. S. 
S. Cox a very kind letter of invitation for myself 
and wife to come to his house and remain with him 
during the present hostile and formidable invasion 
of Kentucky. Please to present him my best ac- 
knowledgments for that hospitable invitation and 
say to him I could not leave Kentucky at such a 
time. I must remain with her, if it be only to 
share in her troubles and her dangers. * * ♦ 
Be pleased also to give to Mr. Cox my heartiest and 
best wishes for his re-election to Congress. I have 
had my prejudices against him, but he overcame 
them entirely by his conduct and course in the 
present Congress, — his course in my opinion ju- 
dicious, intelligent and patriotic, opposing stead- 
ily that abolition policy which sought to convert 
this holy war for the defence of the government 
and the union into a mere anti-slavery party war — 
a policy calculated to prolong and embitter the 
bloody war, without doing any good to the white 
or to the black man. It is for the country to decide 
whether such a policy should prevail. It is for his 
opposition to it that I feel a solicitude for the 
election of Mr. Cox." 

Besides his magnetic hold on the affections of 
the people, Mr. Cox, by his support of every Consti- 
tutional measure for a vigorous prosecution of the 
war, drew to himself a large Republican vote. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 91 

The Thirty-eighth Congress, the fourth to which 
Mr. Cox had been elected, met December 5, 1863. 
The battle of Gettysburg had been fought in the 
previous July, and although the advancing legions 
of the Confederacy had been turned back, some of 
the most desperate fighting of the war remained. 
Mr. Cox had, from his second term, served on the 
Committee of Foreign Affairs, and had enjoyed in 
an eminent degree the confidence of the Secretary 
of State, William H. Seward. This Congress it was 
that submitted to the States the Thirteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slav- 
ery. That institution had already been abolished 
in fact — abolished by tlie Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation issued by President Lincoln in 1862. It was 
desired, however, to place the work of the Procla- 
mation beyond any possible question by incorpor- 
ating it in the Supreme law of the land. Mr. Cox 
did not vote for this amendment, although he was 
disposed to favor it. In his Three Decades he ex- 
plains this seeming contradiction. He had, he 
says, left himself free to vote for it, in case its pas- 
sage would not interfere with attempts at peace 
negotiations. He fully intended, when he went to 
the House at noon of the last day of January, 1865 
— the day fixed for taking the vote — to cast his 
vote for the amendment. But on arriving at the 
House he learned that commissioners to conclude 
peace were actually waiting to be conducted 
across the lines. Fearing tha,t action on the 
amendment at that critical juncture might prove a 
serious obstacle to peace negotiations, Mr. Cox 
cast his vote against the amendment — a vote to be 
construed rather against the expediency of its 



92 SAMUEL ^ULLIVAK COX 

adoption at that particular time than against the 
abstract principle the amendment involved. 

In connection with this vote, Mr. Cox relates the 
following interesting incident: — 

"In striving to stay hostilities and prevent 
butchery, the author (of the Three Decades) uncon- 
sciously saved his personal probity from unde- 
served reproach. This is the incident. He was 
boarding at the house of an active radical Repub- 
lican who had been on General Fremont's staff. 
The writer had spoken, in confidence, about the 
table and under the roof of this landlord of his in- 
tention to vote for the amendment. One vote was 
then most momentous to make the requisite two- 
thirds. This ex-soldier of fortune counted, in a 
mercenary way, on improving his purse by his con- 
fidential information. When the writer returned 
to his Tuesday dinner, having given under the cir- 
cumstances an adverse vote, the irascible radical 
broke forth into such a torrent of abuse against 
the writer, that the latter left the table in disgust 
and bewilderment. The abuser in his wrath 
averred — what he afterwards, when stricken with 
blindness and repentant, directed his good wife to 
asseverate in writing — that he was to get ten thou- 
sand dollars from New York parties for influenc- 
ing the writer's vote favorably to the amendment. 
The wiiter discovered the party who raised the 
fund which was said to be ready and freely used 
for corrupting members. Can anything be con- 
ceived more monstrous than this attempt to amend 
the Constitution upon such a humane and glori- 
ous theme, by the aid of the lucre of officeholders? 
This statement was made in Congress after the 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 93 

war, and with much detail. It was never chal- 
lenged. It is true." This would have been by no 
means the first instance of a legislator's vote being 
sold with no knowledge of the transaction on the 
part of the man who cast the vote, 

Mr. Cox was about to suffer his first defeat at 
the hands of the people. It was the fall of 1864, 
Lincoln was a candidate for re-election, and Gen. 
McClellan was his Democratic opponent. Mr. Cox 
was, for the fifth time, his party's nominee to rep- 
resent the Columbus district in Congress. Again 
his opponent was Samuel S. Shellabarger. The 
+.lde set in strongly in favor of Republicanism, and 
Shellabarger was swept into Congress by the enor- 
mous majority of 3,169. The soldier vote, which 
was forwarded from field and camp, contributed 
largely to this result. With the completion of Mr. 
Cox's term, en March 4, 1865, the curtain was rung 
down on the last scene of a drama which had been 
eight years on the boards. After long wandering 
in the wilderness, the Canaan of peace was just 
ahead. Mr. Cox, as Congressman, was permitted 
to see its dawn, but not its noonday. Within six 
weeks after his retirement from Congress, Rich- 
mond had fallen. Lee had turned over his sword to 
Grant in the shade of the Appomattox apple tree, 
and, in the midst of the country's hallelujahs, had 
come the shock of Lincoln's assassination. Events 
of mighty import to the nation trod on one anoth- 
er's heels thick and fast in those six weeks. Mr.Cox, 
from his retirement looked back upon eight years 
of honorable service in the most momentous era of 
the nation's history — the era which led up to, and 
paralleled, the civil war. 



94 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

Throughout the long struggle Mr. Cox consist- 
ently supported every constitutional measure for 
the suppression of the rebellion, but was unspar- 
ing in his criticism of measures which seemed to 
him to be unnecessarily arbitrary and to infringe 
upon personal liberty. Between himself and 
President Lincoln the friendliest relations existed. 
Among Mr. Cox's priA^ate papers appears 
the following autograph letter, written by Presi- 
dent Lincoln, a few weeks before his assassina- 
tion: 

Executive Mansion Washington, 
January 31, 1865. 
Hon. S. S. Cox, 

My Dear Sir — Thank you for the speech. I 

sought it for the humor said to be in it; but while 

it meets expectation in that respect, it has a far 

higher merit, so far as I can judge by the hasty 

glance I have only found time to give it. 

Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

Prefacing his volume "Eight Years in Con- 
gress," Mr. Cox recalled with pardonable pride the 
part he had taken in those stirring scenes. Ad- 
dressing his old constituents he says: "I repre- 
sented you truly, when I warned and worked from 
1856 to 1860 against the passionate zealotry of 
North and South; when I denounced, in and out 
of Congress, the bad fallacy and worse conduct of 
the secessionists; when I voted to avert the im- 
pending war by every measure of adjustment; and 
when, after the war came, by my votes for money 
and men, I aided the administration in maintain- 
ing the Federal authority over the insurgent 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 95 

states. Sustained by you, I supported every meas- 
ure which was constitutional and expedient, to 
crush the rebellion. In the perusal of these 
pages," he added, "no one will find any aid, by 
speech or vote, given to those who raised the stan- 
dard of revolt." 

Valued testimony to Mr. Cox's services in sup- 
port of war measures and notably of the amend- 
ment to abolish slavery, was borne by no less a 
personage than William H. Seward, the illustrious 
premier of the Lincoln administration. In a pub- 
lic speech, delivered at Auburn, his home, in Octo- 
ber, 1868, Secretary Seward said: 

"I entertain no ill will towards the democratic 
party or its leaders, and certainly have no unchar- 
itable feelings toward that great constituency. 
On the other hand, I cherish a grateful apprecia- 
tion of the patriotism, the magnanimity, the hero- 
ism of many of my fellow citizens, with whom I 
have cheerfully labored and co-operated while 
they still retained their adhesion to the Democrat- 
ic party. How could I distrust the loyalty or the 
virtue of Andrew Johnson, of General Hancock, 
of General McClellan, of Senator Hendricks, of 
Indiana, Mr. Niblack, or of Mr. Cox, formerly of 
Ohio, to whom personally, more than any other 
member, is due the passage of the constitutional 
amendment in Congress abolishing African slav- 
ery." 



CHAPTER X. 



REMOVAL TO NEW YORK. 



At the close of his eight years' service in Con- 
gress, Mr. Cox, tired of public life, and in the be- 
lief that he was through with it, decided to re- 
move to the city of New York, and take up again 
the practice of the law. In this he had a partner, 
Mr. Charlton T. Lewis. In dedicating his volume, 
"Eight Years in Congress," to his constituents, re- 
ferring to the conflicts illustrated therein, he had 
said: "I have had my share of such conflicts. No 
ambition now actuates me save that I may be in- 
strumental, through these pages, in mirroring the 
past eight years, with the clearness and fidelity of 
truth." Few men at forty could boast a public 
service so long and distinguished, coupled with 
accumulation of so rich a store and such marvel- 
ous versatilities of general culture. 

Although settled down to the routine of a New 
York lawyer, Mr. Cox was not to be permitted a 
long respite from public service. He relates an in- 
teresting incident respecting the attempted im- 
peachment of President Andrew Johnson, in the 
winter of 1868. During the trial Mr. Cox received 
a dispatch summoning him to Washington. The 
success of the impeachers, it was understood, 
hinged on one vote--that of Senator Henderson, 
of Missouri. With this Senator, Mr. Cox was 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 97 

known to be on terms of close intimacy. It was 
thought that Mr. Cox's influence might resolve the 
doubts in the Senator's mind, and persuade him 
to cast his vote against impeachment. 

Mr. Cox obeyed the summons, and was soon in 
Washington, closeted with the Missouri Senator. 
The sequel is thus told by Mr. Cox: "A public 
meeting had just been held at S|t. Louis, to in- 
struct the Senator to vote 'guilty.' His sense of 
justice had been affronted by this. In this mood 
the writer found him. He seemed to want advice 
and counsel. It was not long before the writer 
was requested by the Senator to pen and send a 
telegram to the president and ofl&cers of that im- 
pudent St. Louis meeting. It substantially read: 
*I am a judge in the impeachment case. You have 
no right to instruct me in such affairs. As I am 
an honest man I will obey my conscience, and not 
your will. I shall vote 'not guilty.' " And he did 
so vote. A copy of that telegram the writer took 
to the White House at midnight. He found the 
President gloomy. His fate depended on one vote 
— nay, on this one Missouri vote. Grimes and 
Ross were sure, but Henderson was not. The tele- 
gram was read to the President. A festivity was 
improvised on the good news; and the morning 
dawned with roseate hues for all interested in the 
righteousness of the President's acquittal, and the 
certainty of the vindication of a President, than 
whom no man was ever more vilipended without 
justifiable cause." 

The object of Mr. Cox's mission to Washington 
was accomplished; the impeachers were foiled; 
and the President was saved. 



CHAPTER XI. 



RETURNS TO CONGRESS. 



In leaving Congress four years before Mr. Cox 
had said "adieu;" but fate turned it into an "au 
revoiE."'/In tlie fall of 1868 he was nominated for 
Congress by his party representatives in the Sixth 
district, and was elected over George Starr, a 
popular Republican, by 2,680. Then began a Con- 
gressional service of twenty years, scarcely inter- 
rupted till his death. In fact he was a member, at 
one stage or another, of every Congress that sat 
thereafter, so long as he lived — from the Forty- 
first to the Fifty-first inclusive. 

Heretofore he had represented the Capital dis- 
trict of Ohio. Henceforth he w^as to represent in 
part the great city of New York. 

Shortly after his election Mr. Cox, accompanied 
by his wife, as ever on his travels, prompted by 
impaired health, set sail for Europe, returning the 
following autumn in time for the opening of Con- 
gress. 

"Mr. Cox," writes the companion of his travels, 
"was worn out with the campaign of '67 or '68 and 
the doctor ordered him abroad. He had then 
symptoms of lung trouble — ^slight hemorrhages, 
&c., so we started for Jerusalem. Bought a trunk 
full of maps and books, to study up Palestine and 
the Orient. Arrived at Mentone, Dr. Bennett 




DR. HENRY BEXNETT, 
Cox's Physician in Europe (i86Qt, in his Garden at Mentone. 



SAMUEL S;ULLIVAN COX 99 

nearly took my breath away in his consultation. 
"Mrs. Cox I will not answer for the life of your 
husband, if he travels in this condition!" "What 
shall I do, Doctor?" "Stay the winter here or in Al- 
giers. Stay here or at Nice and I will invite you (a 
thing I rarely do), to go as my patients in the 
spring to Algiers. If Mr. Cox wearies, take him a 
short trip to Corsica. It is unbeaten track." 

"So ended our 'second grand campaign!' For 
we had given it almost as much thought as the po- 
litical campaign! Mr. Cox convinced by physician 
and wife, remained and we had a very delightful 
Avinter on the Riviera — extending to Vallembrosa 
in Cannes and during the mild winter accom- 
plished our trip to Corsica — perhaps the most 
unique of any of our foreign sojournings. 

"In the spring Dr. Bennett and an uncle, an old 
India campaigner, with Mr. Cox and myself took 
the steamer for Algiers and finished the African 
and Spanish trip which he pictures in his 'Search 
for Winter Sunbeams.' " 

In this charming volume, which he dedicated to 
his constituents of the Sixth Congressional dis- 
trict of New York, he has told the story of his 
travels during that year. "My circle," in a resume 
of his journeys he writes, "began at the Riviera 
under the Alps; it includes Corsica; thence enters 
into Africa, and passes through Spain and South- 
ern France, until, again in the Alps of Italy, it 
ends, with a view so eminent, that it seems to com- 
prehend the whole sweep of nearly a year's tour of 
travel." 

The day that witnessed the return of Samuel 
Sullivan Cox to Congress signaled the election of 



100 SAMUEL S,IILLIVAN COX 

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, over Horatio Seymour, to 
the Presidency. The counti'y was still struggling 
with the problem of reconstruction. The passions 
of the war were still far from' being burned out. 
Mr. Cox believed that the greatest- bar to a com- 
plete restoration of the union wa*^ the political 
ostracism of the men who had borne arms against 
the United States. Accordingly one of his first 
acts, on returning to the familiar scenes of Con- 
gress, was the introduction of a general amnesty 
bill. That was in 1869. He explains that his ob- 
ject in Congressional service was, since war 
could not be alleviated of its cruelties, to mitigate, 
in so far as it could be done, the proscriptive tend- 
ency which kept our people separated by a great 
chasm. Mr. Cox's bill came within two votes of 
passing the House, James G. Blaine being the 
Speaker, although under the fourteenth amend- 
ment a two-thirds vote was required. Mr. Cox 
urged the measure with all the force and elo- 
quence he could command. The emphatic endorse- 
ment of his proposition by so large a majority — al- 
though falling just short of the requisite two- 
thirds — in a House politically hostile, was a de- 
cided personal triumph. But he did not give up 
the fight. In Congress after Congress he sought 
the passage of a bill bestowing general amnesty 
upon the South, as the shortest and quickest road 
to complete reconciliation. Speaker Blaine had, 
according to Mr. Cox, authorized the Committee 
on Rules, of which both were members, to report 
such a measure, only to retreat precipitately from 
the high ground he occupied in Committe, so soon 
as the bill reached the House. However that was, 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 101 

it is certain that such progress towards amnesty 
as was made in Mr. Cox's day, was due in large 
degree to his untiring efforts and indomitable per- 
severance. 

— N 

Mr. Cox's antagonist in the Congressional ^I'lec- ' 
tion of 1870 was the famous editor of the New 
York Tribune, Horace Greeley. Mr. Cox's ma- 
jority was 1,025. Two years later the two were 
running on the same ticket, the one for President, 
the other for Congressman-at-large. The Forty- 
second Congress^ which came into being March 4, 
1871, and died March 4, 1873, was the first to have 
on its roll the names of representatives of the 
lately enslaved race. In this Congress Mr. Cox 
made a persistent but ineffectual fight against the 
test oath system — seeking to abolish the entire 
system in its application alike to jurors, and all 
ofi&cers, including Congressmen. In its place, how- 
ever, a modified measure was passed applying to 
the oath to be administered to members of Con- 
gress, but not to jurors. But complete triumph 
came to Mr. Cox two decades after the war, when 
President Arthur, on May 13, 1884, signed the bill 
repealing both the iron-clad oath and the jury- 
test oath. 



CHAPTER XII. 

RACE FOR CONGRESSMAN- AT-LARGK. 

Mr. Cox's next race for congress, made in the 
fall of 1872, was under new conditions and in 
strange company. Tlie revolt in the Republican 
party against Grant, had resulted in the nomina- 
tion at Cincinnati of Horace Greeley for President, 
and his adoption as Presidential candidate by the 
Democratic National Convention at Baltimore. 
This action was followed by a practical fusion, a 
modus Vivendi, of the Democrats and Liberal (an- 
ti-Grant) Republicans in several of the States, in- 
cluding New York. The Democratic State Con- 
vention at Syracuse, meeting concurrently with 
the Liberal Republican State Convention held in 
another hall in the same city, made a fusion ticket 
headed by Francis Kernan for Governor, with 
Chauncey M. Depew for Lieutenant Governor, and 
Samuel S. Cox for representative in Congress at 
large. A new apportionment had given New 
York an additional representative, who, for this 
time — the Legislature not yet having redistricted 
the State — was to be elected from the State at 
large. Mr. Cox's acknowledged strength with the 
masses of voters over the entire State led natur- 
ally to his selection, when strength for the mon- 
grel ticket was the one thing needed and sought. 
It was a curious combination, Horace Greeley, the 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 103 

high priest of protection, and life-long foe of De- 
mocracy, at its head; Francis Kernan, a Democrat 
of Democrats, yoked with Chauncey M. Depew, 
who never had been aught but a Republican 
throughout; and Samuel S. Cox, an avowed advo- 
cate of free trade, and the antipode in general of 
the editor of the Tribune. Mr. Cox was carried 
down with the rest of the strange company in 
which he had been placed. It was his second and 
last defeat before the people — his defeat in his 
Ohio district having been his first. Although he 
ran ahead of his ticket, Mr. Cox was defeated by 
Lyman Tremain, ex-attorney general of New York, 
by a majority of 37,699. 

Mr. Cox was on the stump for Greeley and the 
rest of the Democratic ticket throughout the cam- 
paign. Greeley's nomination had been accepted 
by the Democrats for the promise it gave that his 
election meant amnesty and reconciliation, and a 
return of peace and good-will between the lately 
warring sctions. "The Democracy," said Mr. Cox 
from the stump, in justification of the seemingly 
inconsistent policy of the party in adopting a life- 
long antagonist as its candidate for President, 
"should remember that, while in the heat and dust 
of Other strifes Horace Greeley has not spared 
them, yet, in generous rivalry, he has endeavored 
with them to pursue the paths of peace. If elected, 
he will, under God, impress his administration 
with sentiments mellowed by new associations, 
with charities silvered over by advancing years, 
and with a reverence for the hallowed traditions 
of our early national career, made glorious by that 
Democracy which has, in the vicissitudes of par- 



104 SAM UEL SULLIVAN COX 

ties, become his ally in tliat progress, and a sharer 
in the common blessings and glories which his ad- 
ministration would bestow. The fulness of those 
blessings will come to our country, because they 
will be inspired by the spirit of reconciliation." 

But the country was not yet ready, nor was the 
time ripe, for the proposed change. As Mr. Cox 
himself, years after, expressed it: "Civil govern- 
ments South were still disorganized; lawlessness 
South begat timidity North; the military spirit 
was still rife and rampant; and the issues of the 
war were still uppermost in men's minds." Re- 
conciliation came, but years later. 

During that memorable campaign an epidemic 
of the epizootic seized upon the equines of the 
country, almost completely paralyzing industries 
dependent upon the use of horses. Writing from 
the stump to a friend Mr. Cox made playful I'efer- 
ence to this epidemic and the general tendency of 
campaign orators to charge all existing ills to the 
party in power. ''I lay the horse distemper," wrote 
Mr. Cox, "to Grant. Run me as the anti-epizootic 
candidate-at-large!" On the heels of the disaster, 
with his habit of looking for the silver lining to 
every cloud, he again wrote: "One of my chief 
joys, not a 'crumb' but a whole festivity of de- 
lights was the friendships I had formed in my cam- 
paign over the State. My heart goes out "^at large' 
to them. I am thoroughly dazed," he added, 
"with the result in the country." 

On the result of the election being known, Mr. 
Cox at once wrote to his successful competitor con- 
gratulating him on his victory. This letter 
brought from Mr. Tremain the following reply: 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 105 

"Albany, Nov. 11th, 1872. 
Hon. S. S. Cox. 

My Dear Sir — Accept my thanks for the friendly 
sentiments expressed in your valued favor of the 
9th inst., which, I assure you, are heartily recipro- 
cated on my part. When I went to Hart's studio 
in Florence with our mutual friend 
and your warm admirer, Captain Boyd, 
to view your excellent bust, little did I 
dream that we should be opposing candidates for 
the office of member of congress. But, as Mr. Lin- 
coln truly observed, we are controlled by events 
and circumstances. The recent canvass, earnest 
and exciting as it has been, has left no rankling 
wounds in my breast, nor any other than the kind- 
liest personal feelings towards a gentleman so uni- 
versally esteemed for his genial qualities as my 
distinguished opponent. Kejoicing in the convic- 
tion that our political antagonism has in no man- 
ner disturbed our personal relations, I have the 
honor to be Yours very truly, 

Lyman Tremain." 

Again Mr. Cox supposed his Congressional car- 
eer to be forever closed. Again he awoke to find 
his mistake — his services were too important to be 
dispensed with. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



SPURNS THE "back PA.Y. 



The second session of the Forty-second Con- 
gress, expiring March 4, 1873, to attend which Mr. 
Cox returned to the National Capital the month 
folowing the "Greeley fiasco," and his own defeat, 
short as it was, proved long enough to earn for 
that Congress unenviable notoriety. At this ses- 
sion the "back pay grab," as the law increasing 
the salary of a Congressman was popularly 
known, was placed upon the Federal statute book. 
Its most obnoxious feature, in the popular estima- 
tion, was its retro-active provision, dating the in- 
crease of salary two years back, to the beginning 
of the life of that Congress. The bill found in Mr. 
Cox a vigorous opponent. When, despite his ef- 
forts to compass its defeat, the bill bec:ime a law, 
Mr. Cox, refusing to profit therefrom, turned his 
share of the "steal" back into the public treasury. 
Mr. Cox felt keenly the infamy the "back pay" law 
had brought upon Congress. In a private letter 
written a few days after the adjournment he said: 
"I did all I knew in the last Congress, but it seems 
as if even the decent people in Congress are em- 
balmed in a common infamy with the worst. This 
is discouraging. I spoke and voted against every 
phase of the 'Back Pay.' " Stating that he had 
returned his own pontion to the United States 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 107 

treasury, "where it belonged," he added: "I didn't 
expect it when I served ; I did not contract for it ; 
I am happy in being rid of it. I am foolish enough 
to take a pride in having my old constituents, and 
my last fall's supporters, 400,000 good fellows, 
think I am not a mean person, nor a selfish legisla- 
tor." 

The Treasury receipt of the "grab" which he had 
spumed reads as follows: 

"Treasury of the United States, 

Washington, April 30, 1S73. 
Sir: — For $4,812, received as per yours of the 
20th instant, I enclose duplicates of my cei-tificate 
of deposit No. 7,960, on account of miscellaneous 
receipts received from John A. Hardenbergh, New 
York, a& a deposit from Hon. S. S. Cox, being 
amount retroactive salary due him as member 
Forty-second Congress by act approved March 3, 
1873.' 

Forty-eight hundred and twelve dollars original 
certificate of deposit sent to the Secretary of the 
Treasury. Very respectfully, 

F. E. SPIN NEK, 
Treasurer United States. 
John A. Hardenbergh, 
No. 112 Broadway, New York." 

Many a member of that Congress returned home 
with the "back pay" in his pocket only to meet a 
frowning and unforgiving constituency. Many a 
member of that Congress, having pocketed the 
"back pay," dated his retirement to private life 
from that untoward event. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

AGAIN RETURNS TO CONGRESS. 

Relieved, as lie supposed, from public cares, 
possibly permanently, Mr. Cox had planned an- 
other trip abroad, when intelligence was brought 
him of the critical illness of his venerable father. 
Between father and son the bond of affection w^as 
exceedingly strong. He hurried to his father's 
bedside in Ohio and awaited the end. 
Writing of his father's death (which 
occurred May 18, 1873, at Zanesville), Mr. 
Cox says: "We buried my father on Tuesday. I 
can hardly realize the loss. It seems as if my life, 
private and public, had been mostly to please 
him." Owing to this affliction the projected tour 
abroad was abandoned. "I must," he wrote, "give 
up my foreign trip for the present. My mother 
cannot bear the idea of my being cat of the coun- 
try. So I am to be here for a time at least, if not 
for the year." 

Events other than domestic affliction, as it 
proved, contributed to the postponement of the 
trip he had planned, for the summer, in the old 
world. The death of James Brooks, a distin- 
guished Representative in Congress from the new 
Sixth District in New York, had created a vacancy 
in the new Congress, which Mr. Cox was asked to 
fill. Consenting to the use of his name, he was, in 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 109 

the fall of 1873, elected by the large majority of 
6,932. He took his seat at the opening of Con- 
gress, in December. Thus it happened that there 
was no actual gap in his Congressional service 
caused by his defeat in 1872. Mr. Blaine was 
again, for the third consecutive Congress, in the 
Speaker's chair, and General Butler, of Massachu- 
setts, was the acknowledged leader on the floor of 
the House. Two prominent political measures 
before that Congress pushed by General Butler 
with all his characteristic energy and determina- 
tion were the Force Bill and the Civil Rights Bill. 
The opposition to these measures was marshaled 
by Samuel J.Randall and Samuel S. Cox. The Civil 
Rights Bill was finally passed, but the dilatory 
tactics of the minority, under the leadership of 
Messrs. Cox and Randall, were fatal to the Force 
Bill. Referring in after years to the struggle over 
the Force Bill, Congressman Bland, of Missouri, 
said: "Justice requires me to say that the strict 
impartiality shown by Mr. Blaine, the Speaker, 
during this memorable contest extorted the high- 
est warmth of admiration from his political op- 
ponents. In that fight there were two great men 
and great characters brought more prominently 
than before into public notice. These were Samuel 
J. Randall and Sullivan Cox. Mr. Cox," in Mr. 
Bland's opinion, "was truly our Parnell , while 
Mr. Randall in many characteristics was to us a 
Gladstone." 

To the next Congress, the Forty-fourth, Mr. Cox 
was elected by a majority of 10,334. The opposi- 
tion had long before abandoned all attempts to 
secure his defeat. For the first time since his en- 
try into Congress eighteen years before, when 



110 SAMUEL SULLIVAN GOX 

James L. Orr was chosen speaker, he found him- 
self in a House controlled by his party friends. 
The "tidal wave" of 1874 which had swept over the 
land, had overwhelmed the Republicans in the 
House and given the majority to the Democrats. 
Mr. Cox was prominently mentioned for Speaker. 
He had beeen named for that position by his party 
associates when a nomination was but an empty 
honor. Now that it meant an election, why should 
the nomination not be conferred upon him? He 
had enthusiastic supporters, particularly among 
Southern and Western members. It was a trian- 
gular contest. His rivals were Samuel J. Randall 
of Pennsylvania, and Michael C. Kerr of Indiana. 
The choice ultimately fell upon Mr. Kerr. By him 
Mr. Cox was appointed chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Banking and Currency. The rooms of this 
committee were historic. They were the old 
"Speaker's rooms" attached to the former hall of 
Representatives, and so used during the first nine 
days of Mr. Cox's service in Congress before the 
removal to the present Representative Chamber. 
Here it was John Quincy Adams, stricken while 
in his seat as a representative from Massachusetts, 
was carried, and saw the "last of earth." A bust 
of the famous ex-President and champion of the 
right of petition, placed in the main room, com- 
memorates the melancholy event. Before the 
Forty-fourth Congress had ended its existence, 
Mr. Cox's committee rooms became additionally 
historic; for here, by his courtesy, met the House 
special committee, charged with the duty of devis- 
ing some peaceable way out of the controversy 
which then threatened to embroil the country in 
another civil war, far worse than the one from 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX ill 

which it had but recently emerged — a controversy 
arising from an election for the Presidency. The 
first steps towards the formation of the electoral 
commission were here taken. Mr. Cox, although 
not a member of this special committee, gave the 
bill it presented his passive support. When it be- 
came evident that the outcome would be the seat- 
ing of Mr. Hayes, whom he had opposed, instead of 
Mr. Tilden, whom he had supported, Mr. Cox, in a 
speech in the House on the Louisiana case, washed 
his hands of all responsibility for the conse- 
quences. 

Mr. Cox refused, however, to join in factious 
opposition to a result he felt bound in good faith 
to accept. His voice and vote were given consis- 
tently for loyal acquiescence in what he believed 
to be a reversal of the popular verdict, but still a 
result reached through the forms of law. 

Early in the first session of this Congress, Speak- 
er Kerr was seized with a critical, and as it proved, 
fatal illness. Speaker Kerr designated Mr. Cox 
from time to time to fill the chair during his brief 
absences, until the Speaker being compelled to 
leave the Capital in search of health, the House on 
the 19th of June formally elected Mr. Cox Speaker 
pro tem. It was a Congress embracing on the one 
side such men as Randall, Holman, Hewitt, Mills 
Lamar, Tucker, Morrison, Watterson, Hurd, 
Springer, Knott and Blackburn, and on the other 
such men as Blaine, Garfield, Gen. Banks, Kelley, 
Kasson and Hoar — an unusual aggregation of lum- 
inous intellects. "Samuel S. Cox," said one of his 
eulogists, "shone in this galaxy like a star of the 
first magnitude.'- 

While acting as the temporary Speaker of the 



112 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

House, Mr. Cox was chosen delegate to the Demo- 
cratic National Convention at St. Louis, and left 
the chair to attend the convention. Milton Sayler, 
of Ohio, was chosen to fill the chair during Mr. 
Cox's absence. The implied understanding was 
that on Mr. Cox's return from St. Louis, his substi- 
tute would relinquish the chair to its former occu- 
pant. That this was not done was one of the in- 
scrutabilities of public life — one, too, which Mr. 
Sayler never ventured to explain. Meanwhile Mr. 
Kerr lay dying at Alum Springs, West Virginia. 
Thither hastened Mr. Cox, on the adjournment of 
Congress, to the bedside of his friend. In a letter 
to a friend, dated August 23, 1876, Mr. Cox wrote : 
^'I have been weary enough from service in Con- 
gress and from waiting at the sad ending of Mr. 
Kerr's life." Mr. Cox's eulogy on Speaker Kerr, 
on the re-assembling of Congress, matched his eul- 
ogy, sixteen years before, of Senator Stephen A. 
Douglas. It made a marked impression upon the 
House. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, who 
was lying ill at his room in the National Hotel — 
the room in which Henry Clay died — and who sup- 
posed his own end near, sent for Mr. Cox. As, 
accompanied by his nephew, Wm. V. Cox, he en- 
tered the sick room, the distinguished Georgian 
said: "I have heard read your eloquent eulogy up- 
on Speaker Kerr, and have sent for you to make a 
request — a last request. Will you promise to de- 
liver my eulogy when I am gone?" Mr. Cox's 
prompt reply was: "I would like you to promise to 
make my eulogy. You will be the survivor." The 
Georgian did indeed rally, and lived years of use- 
fulness. He crossed, however, to the other shore, 
long before his genial friend. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 113 

Mr. Cox's election to the 45th Congress was 
practically unanimous. Only 41 votes were cast 
against him. The House was again Democratic, 
and Samuel J. Randall, who had at the second ses- 
sion of the Forty-fourth congress been chosen to 
succeed the lamented Kerr, was again the Speaker. 
Mr. Cox was placed at the head of the committee 
on the Tenth Census. It involved a work in which 
he took a peculiar pride. He was the author of the 
bill, which became a law March 3, 1879, providing 
for the census. In its perfectness no census the 
country had witnessed could compare with it. Ex- 
cept his legislative achievements in the Life Sav- 
ing Service and for the Letter Carriers, nothing 
accomplished by Mr. Cox during his long service in 
Congress gave him greater pleasure, or was a 
source to him of greater pride than the Tenth Cen- 
sus. It stands to-day a monument to his pains- 
taking, and his wonderful grasp of details. 

He was re-elected in 1878 to the Forty-sixth Con- 
gress, and in 1880 to the Forty-seventh Congress 
by pluralities of 4,581 and 9,863 respectively. In 
the latter year, James A. Garfield, who had been 
his colleague for nearly two decades, was elected 
President, and with him was returned, for the first 
time in eight years, a Republican majority in the 
House of Representatives. 



CHAPTER XV. 

FROM NORTH CAPE TO THE PYRAMIDS. 

In the spring of 1881, soon after Garfield's inau- 
guration, Mr. Cox, accommpanied by his wife, 
sailed for an extended trip abroad. The story of 
their travels he has told in two volumes entitled 
"Arctic Sunbeams, or from Broadway to the Bos- 
phorus, by way of the North Cape," and "Orient 
Sunbeams, or from the Porte to the Pyramids, by 
way of Palestine." Together these titles summar- 
ize their eight months' journey. They "compre- 
hend a travel in which some twelve different na- 
tionalities are involved; and each and all of them 
in process of mutation, politically, socially, mor- 
ally and religiously." Some of the scenes in the 
land of the Turk and in the far east were revisited 
after a lapse of thirty years 

He halted for a brief rest in London, and while 
there attended a session of Parliament, and the 
funeral of Lord Beaconsfield. To a friend at home 
he writes of these events and the impressions they 
made as follows: 

'•London, Eng., April, 26, 1881. 
"My Dear Friend: I am enjoined from doing 
any sort of work — my wife being the judex — so I 
do not, cannot give you a description, as I hoped, 
of the Parliament, whose sessions began last night 
after the Easter recess. Having been lucky in get 




NORTH CAPE GROUP. 
S. S. Cox, Wife and Guide— 1881. 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 115 

ting a front seat, I had an opportunity of looking 
down on the scene, and heard and saw the opening 
of the performance in behalf of the Irish people. 
The morning papers are full of the debate, and you 
will doubtless have abstracts of it by telegraph. 
When the House met, at half-past 3 o'clock, there 
was but one of the Cabinet on the government 
benches. Soon the hall filled, and some five hun- 
dred members were on hand. Mr. Bright was 
there, looking none the worse for the twelve years 
since I last saw him. Mr. Gladstone did not Come 
in till the member from the University of Dublin 
(Mr. Gibson) was nearly done his trenchant and 
dashing speech for the landlords. The debate came 
near falling through, owing to some weary and pe- 
culiar tactics. In fact, a motion to adjourn it was 
made. This aroused Gladstone, and he and North- 
cote, the Tory leader, had a tussle ,and some others 
of less note grappled. The debate went on until 
Mr. Speaker Bland went out for tea, and I ad- 
journed myself to look after the pictures in the cor- 
ridors. There was not much interest manifested 
until a young inchoate Duke of Portsmouth (Lord 
Lyming-ton) took the floor. He spoke well, and 
with sympathy for Ireland and her grievances. The 
debate was kept up till after midnight, and was 
resumed last night, when I was present again, Mrs. 
Cox being in the box of Mrs. Speaker Bland, and 
shut in from observation, though able to hear and 
see all below. 

"It is difiicult for gentlemen to obtain access to 
the Commons, and still more so for the ladies. 
Thanks to the courtesy of the Speaker, we had 
double advantages. My seat was in the Speaker's 



116 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

gallei'y, front row, and facing the Speaker and 
looking: down upon the seats. 

"Thirty years ago I attended Parliament, but it 
was in the old St. Stephen's, full of Parliajnentary 
traditions. The present chamber is in the New 
House. It will not hold one-fifth of the people 
who can assemble in our lower House. It is well 
lighted somewhat as our House is, from the ceiling 
with gaslights above colored glass squares. There 
are stained windows on either side, with diamond 
panes, colored red and green, and galleries all 
around and above the chamber. These galleries on 
either side are two seats deep, for embassadors and 
other privileged people, and at either end seats for 
the reporter over the Speakers' chair, and for those 
admitted by the Speaker's card. The seats are 
ample. They are of green leather, but, strange to 
say, only one seat for a half-dozen Peers. The 
reporters come and go every hour as the big bell 
in the tower near by dings out the time. The 
Speaker's seat is under an oaken canopy. In front 
of his chair are the seats and desks of the clerks 
(or clarks), and still in front of that desk is the 
"table," on which are some volumes, and on either 
side two reddish boxes, one holding the printed 
oath, and the other the affirmation, and still fur- 
ther, at the end of this table, is the mace, golden 
or gilt, as old as the Stuarts, and more potential 
now then the "bauble" of Cromwell's day. It is 
the emblem of the authority of the House, and, like 
our own mace, is in its place when the House is in 
session. It has a golden crown at one end — unlike 
our mace, which has a silver eagle at the end of 
a diminutive barber pole. 



SAMUEL S.ULLIVAN COX 117 

"On either side of the table sit the prominent 
members. To the right of the Speaker and in front 
is the Treasury Bench, on which sit, or repose om 
the small of their backs, and with hats on, gener- 
ally, the members of the Cabinet when the House 
is in session. Behind this bench of notables are 
the immediate supporters of the government. Op- 
posite are their opponents, led by Sir Stafford 
Northcote. There is an aisle crossing the house, 
and below, or remote from the table (below the 
"gangway" as it is called), sit the Independent, 
Radical, and Irish members. I have not time for a 
photograph of the scene presented when the house 
is in session, but I have had the privilege of hear- 
ing two grand debates — one on the Irish bill, and 
the other on the Bradlaugh case. 

"In the latter affair there was a scene. The like 
has not happened in our Congress, certainly not 
since the war. A member-elect, well authenti- 
cated, appears and tenders himself to take the 
oath. It is objected that he is an atheist. He still 
insists that the oath will bind. His objectors con- 
tend that his swearing is profanation. He re- 
sponds: 'I comply with the law. The conscience 
involved is i^ot yours, but my own.' He is rejected 
on a division. Gladstone, Bright, et al., are dis- 
comfited. Cheers resound; so that you might hear 
them across the Thames. S,till Bradlaugh insists 
on his seat. He is removed by a pretense of force. 
He escapes to the table; is again removed by an 
old sergeant-at-arms dressed in tights, shoe- 
buckles, sword and wig, but again returns from 
the bar to the table. In the melee the House ad- 
journs. He appears next day and goes through 



118 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

the same performance. The Ministry are to pon- 
der the problem. The result will be, as I prophesy, 
that a general law, exempting all who cannot take 
the oath required by the existing law, will be 
passed. 

"It is not for an American to laugh at this pro- 
ceeding. England was slow to remove Catholic 
and Jewish disabilities, so that these religionists 
should sit in Parliament without tests. England 
has removed from her statutes dozens of oaths re- 
quired in custom house and courts. She has sub- 
stituted declarations or aflSrmations instead; but 
in the United States Congress the anomaly 
remains that Garfield, Bragg, Ewing, and all who 
sustained the Government during the rebellion 
must take the "ironclad" oath, while the rebel i.3 
exempt, and only swears to the Constitution ! Time 
and again I have, with others, tried to remove this 
absurdity, but in vain. The time will come, how- 
ever, when oath-taking will become such a prof- 
anation, by its levity, familiarity and frequency, 
that it will be discarded altogether. Then we shall 
all be Quakers, on that point at least. 

"The debate on the Irish Land bill went on last 
night. Many ordinary speakers spoke. The Attor- 
ney General of Ireland closed the debate. Mr. 
Parnell will speak next week, and I hope to hear 
him. 

"The debate, thus far, leaves upon my mind this 
impression, that while the government means to 
redress Irish tenant grievances, and has, by cun- 
ning and just devices, endeavored to ameliorate 
the hardships of rents and the trouble of insecure 
tenure, that no absolute and lasting cure can be 
realized for the unhappy isle until self-government 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 119 

is accorded to the Irish people. Call it separation, 
or Home Eule, or what you please, the remedies 
proposed, even by the best friends of Ireland, seem 
to me like attempting to cure the pimples upon the 
cuticle when the disorder is so chronic and deep- 
seated as to require heroic remedy. 

"But one more allusion to Ireland. Scarcely 
five days ago, in a smooth sea and on a sunny day, 
we passed around Cape Clear and inside of Fastnet 
rock and lighthouse. The mountains arose upon 
our vision, and the rocky shore left its impression 
— a sad one. Since then we have seen the old town 
of Chester, and the residence of the Duke of West- 
minster near by — Eton Hall — his paddocks and 
horses, mares and colts, including Doncaster, the 
chestnut winner of the Derby and the splendor of 
horses! Since then we have re-visited St. Paul's, 
Westminster Hall and the Abbey, the great mu- 
seum, the Courts of Queen's Bench, Exchequer and 
Common Pleas, and traveled over and under 
ground throughout this vast metropolis. How 
much we have seen in five days! 

"But had any one said to me, before I left the 
dock at the foot of West Houston street, and even 
after the faint impression came of the rolling and 
rocking "cradle of the deep," that within a fort- 
night I should attend the funeral of Benjamin 
Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfleld, I should have 
thought him or her crazy! But it is accomplished. 

"A passenger came aboard our vessel at Queens- 
town, and informed us upon Thursday of Disraeli's 
decease the preceding Thursday. On the succeed- 
ing Tuesday we were at Hughenden, a sweet, 
beautiful manor of hill and dale in Buckingham- 
shire, to observe the obsequies to the political wiz- 



120 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

ard of the century. This marvel cf statesman and 
author, this strange genius of a proscribed race, 
was generously and nobly entombed in a rural spot 
by the loving hands of a tenantry who seemed to 
admire and respect him. He was entombed within 
the same vault, under a Christian church, where 
his Christian wife had been buried, and amid a 
throng of authors, statesmen, and nobles, who 
filled the manorial grounds on that pleasant April 
day, to do the dead statesman homage. 

"One incident happened to us — a lucky one. Our 
tickets being first-class — as sovereigns should ever 
be — led us to the carriage in the train to High Wy- 
combe (the depot for Hughenden), next to that of 
the princes of the realm ! The Prince, and heir ap- 
parent, and his two brothers, were the recipients 
of great attention. At every stop of the train 
scores of good people, being advised by the wire, 
were awaiting the royal advent, so that w^e saw 
the loyal demonstrations en route, made in honor 
of the three nice young men — handsome and well 
behaved — whom it is the pleasure of England to 
keep as the figures at the head of affairs, which 
they do not in any wise control. 

"But more of this hereafter. The jaunt was 
truly a relief after a long voyage. The blossoms 
and hedges, fields and trees, the greenery and the 
sunshine, were all enchanting, so that our first 
week's experience on this island has been one of 
recreation tempered with novelty and instruction. 

"Sincerely jours, 

"S. S. Cox." 

In a letter to an American friend dated Beirut, 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 121 

S;7ria, October 4, 1881, en route to Jerusalem, Mr. 
Cox wrote, of Broussa: 

"We began by an inroad upon Broussa. It is 
South of Constantinople and across the Sea of Mar- 
mora. Our experience there, with its silks and 
caravans, its fruits and fountains, its baths for 
health and its sepulchres of the founders of the 
Ottoman Empire — ^of which it was the first capi- 
tal — would form a chapter of romance. One thing 
our trip to Broussa did; it inducted us into the 
mysteries of Asian land travel. In Constantinople 
we had met many peculiar types of men and many 
muffled forms of women, as well as of society. 
They were hard to understand. In our vexation 
we exclaimed: 

" 'There are spirts, clad in veils, 
Woman by man is never seen! 

All our deep conniving fails 

To remove this shadowy screen!' 

"But when we broke into the unreserve of the 
interior and its mixed travel — by steamer and en 
route — the muffler dropped. In this trip we were 
associated with an Irish solicitor from Dublin, and 
his amiable daughter. You may well believe that 
there was a richer indigo in the azure of the sea, 
a new sparkle to the lively waters of Broussa, and 
fresh glows to Mount Olympus, at morning and 
evening, as we talked, and smoked beneath its 
roseate hues and cool shadows, rare fun when we 
stopped in our Druidical groves of oaks, half way, 
amidst camels and donkeys, turkeys and chickens; 
other wonders in the capacities and oddities of 
the animals which carried the cocoons and other 
burdens to the city from the sea; rare attraction 



122 SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 

in the strange, brown faces of the turbaned beg- 
gars we met, and alluring beauties in the broad 
vales made fruitful by streams from Olympus, and 
which spread beneath us, from our hotel balcony, 
like the vega of Grenada, as seen from the walls 
of the Alhambra! Good company does so much 
in travel. This was our first really hot day, and its 
discomforts need the mitigation of society. Since 
we began, at the North Cape in the Arctics, we 
have had no such calorific experience. I began to 
long for a little one-story thermometer with noth- 
ing but zeroes all ranged in a row. But the ranges 
of Olympus soon became refreshing — for had we 
not, along with them, the pleasant society of our 
witty Irish lawyer and his fair daughter?" 

This will interest the ladies: 

"After my wife had made the promenade of the 
silk bazaars — with much cost and instruction — we 
called on a merchant at his house to see some 'por- 
tieres' ordered by a friend in Constantinople. He, 
with his wife and mother, received us. The latter 
sat at her embroidery frame; and when my wife 
exp ressed a desire to see how the work was accom- 
plished so beautifully, she smilingly resumed her 
labor. A fine steel crochet needle is held in the 
right hand close to the face of the velvet, while 
the bobbin of silk or gold thread is held in the left 
hand under the frame on which the velvet is 
stretched. The needle is pushed through the ma- 
terial and catches up the thread underneath, with 
great regularity and rapidity, in the hands of a 
skillful worker. This is the way the Damasucs 
fabrics are adorned." 

In the same letter he describes the view from 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 123 

Mount Olympus: "Looking off from the highest ot 
its heights — 5,500 feet to the snowy crest — how 
small the donkeys seem, even when loaded! The 
Lombardy poplars and cypresses not as big as 
thistle needles. The flat dark roofs of the city are 
leveled with the green in which they are embow- 
ered; and the domes of the mosques — and the^ 
count here by hundreds — look like little bulbous 
toys. The old plain trees, some of which measure 
24 feet round, ever honored in the East, as well 
for their shade as for some genius of the past, look 
like little shrubs, even under a magnifying glass. 
From the height of the classic mount, the sea of 
Marmora and the Euxine, the minarets of Constan- 
tinople, the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, and the 
tall grandeur of Mt. Ida and its range, and the 
rivers, lakes, green belts and broad savannas of 
the valleys, appear in splendid array. It is a grand 
observatory for a superb panorama!" 

Continuing his picture of Oriental life, Mr. Cox 
writes: "Our trip to Broussa was a relief, after our 
long stay on the Bosphorus. One drawback to our 
return was the early rising. At three A. M. we are 
in our carriage, and passing market people coming 
to the city, with their beasts laden with grapes 
and other product of the happy valley. Long 
lines of camels, dressed in red ornaments, pass us 
in the gloaming. They seems monsters of the pre- 
histoiic epoch. We find them at daylight, under 
the oak trees of the half-way grove, resting after 
their nightly journey from the seaside. Did you 
ever notice how strangely the camel is built, and 
how oddly he moves? Like a pompous ante-di- 
luvian he treads over the roughest stones, and in 
the softest sands. The legs on one side move at 



124 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

and with the same time; and then with a gawkv 
swing of the shoulder and haunch of the other side 
so a® to keep up the odd locomotion. He seems to 
be put together on springs or loose hinges; but as 
with the elephant, you may get accustomed to his 
ungainly gait." Mr. Cox was becoming acquainted 
with the beasts concerning which he wrote so 
learnedly in a school-boy composition! 

"As we start afresh," the letter continues, "the 
clouds \N hich hung half-way over Olympus and its 
range floated down into the valley. From the 
sea hills we look back upon a roseate lake. It is 
jQo mirage but an illumination of the clouds below, 
out of which the brown mountain tops rise, like 
enchanted isles. At noon, we reach out seaport, 
whence we sail, in five hours over the blue Mar- 
mora, and have a richly colored picture never to be 
seen too frequently, of the beauteous mosques and 
mirarets, the walls and towers of Stamboul. What 
we saw and heard on our route and on the boat — 
full of all the oddest costumes and people — it 
would take a volume to tell. We are now but one 
day's sail of Jaffa. Thence we go to the main ob- 
jective point since we left the setless sun in the 
Arctic ocean, Jerusalem!" 

A private not penned hurriedly at Ephe- 
sus, September 9, 1891, says: "I send you 
a note for Samuel — as it were, an epistle 
from Ephesus. It is an odd place, and 
we are safe from brigands, having returned from 
our wonderful ride and walk amidst those stupen- 
dous ruins. Ruins! magnificent in their beauty, 
and giving at every turn the glimpses of the ta 
kala you and I used to read of. Mrs. Cox is 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 125 

finishing her lunch on mountain grapes; and she 
got an appetite, for her mule never failed to use 
his heels at every fly — until Mrs. C, seated astride, 
ran canals of sweat. But she is safe. This," he 
adds, "is a picture of the mule" — accompanying 
the words with a graphic pen and ink sketch of the 
oriental beast of burden. 

They were near Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, 
Mr. Cox says, when a few days later they were 
shocked by the news, in a telegram from the con- 
sul at Smyrna, of the assassination of President 
Garfield. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



AGAIN AT HIS POST. 



By the middle of November they were back in 
London, preparing for their return homeward. "I 
am halted in London for a time — say a day — " he 
wrote, "and so I look about a little before we leave. 
What a look-about it is, since we left here in May! 
What a circle of felicity! What a round of pleasant 
observation and experience! How much have we 
done, written, and seen!" The first of December 
found him back in New York, ready for his duties 
in the new congress, about to assemble. That body 
came together under the shadow of the crime of 
the assassin w^hich had plunged the nation in 
mourning. President Garfield had been succeeded 
by President Arthur. The House, again Repub- 
lican, chose J. W. Keifer of Ohio as its speaker. Mr. 
Cox returned to his native land to find that still 
other changes in the political kaleidoscope had oc- 
curred during his absence. Senators Conkling and 
Piatt, of his adopted state, had thrown up their 
commissions, and, after a contest that threatened 
the disruption of their party, had been succeeded 
by others. Those were troublous times in Ameri- 
can politics. They gave a stimulus, however, to 
the civil service reform movement throughout the 
country, and that movement, designed to soften 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 127 

the asperities of politics, found in Mr. Cox a cor- 
dial supporter. "The assassination of General Gar- 
field," according to Mr. Cox, "gave impulse to the 
civil service reform bill. The evils vrhich its pro- 
visions were intended to remedy are acknowledged 
by most men of judgment and experience in pub- 
lic affairs." 

In the election of 1882 Mr. Cox's majority for 
Kepresentative in the forty-eighth congress was 
11,317. The same election swept Grover Cleve- 
land and David B. Hill into the chairs of Governor 
and Lieutenant-Governor of New York by plurali- 
ties close upon 200,000. It was the answer of the 
people to "Federal interference" in the politics of 
the state. The return swing of the pendulum re- 
stored the Democracy to control of the House of 
Representatives. A Kentuckian, John G. Car- 
lisle, was chosen speaker and for three successive 
congresses held the gavel. Mr. Cox, who had al- 
ready succeeded in placing upon the statute books 
important and beneficent laws relating to the life 
saving service and the letter carriers. In this con- 
gress rendered a hardly less valuable service in 
urging the passage of a bill restricting the impor- 
tation of foreign contract labor. 

Mr. Cox's next election to congress, in 1884, was 
synchronous with the election of a Democrat to the 
Presidency. It was the first coincidence of the 
kind since his first election to congress, twenty- 
eight years before. "Thank God,' 'he wrote to an 
old friend, soon after Cleveland's inauguration, 
"we have lived to see, in measureless content, the 
old party of our love in the ascendant." 



CHAPTER XVII. 



AS MINISTER TO TURKEY. 



President Cleveland tendered to Mr. Cox the 
mission to Turkey. It was accepted. The Sen- 
ate, on the nomination reaching that body, at once 
confirmed it, without the usual reference to a com- 
mittee — a compliment rarely extended any nomi- 
nee who is not or has not been a Senator. 

Soon afterward, to an old personal friend, Mr. 
Cox wrote: 

"You and others wonder why I leave a prom- 
inent place in Congress for a mission to Turkey. 
Well, first, many things tended to make me feel 
that I lagged somewhat superfiuous on that stage. 
My faculties and qualities, such as they are, never 
were in better condition; and the equipment of a 
quarter of a century for the work of debate, of 
committee, and legislation was as nearly rounded 
on every theme as a sturdy and stern sense of duty 
could make it. 

"But the advent of new men, as is natural, has 
pushed me to the rear, so that while abreast if not 
ahead of my party on most themes, I was not even 
able to command my old and favorite foreign com- 
miteeship, or my former Smithsonian regentship, 
always accorded to me even by Republicans. Be- 
side so much work in Congress and no result — ^the 
rolling, rolling, rolling i^t) of the stones which 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 129 

rolled down 'with a resulting bound,' the foolish 
modes and rules, which few in control cared to cor- 
rect — all this and more made me think it was high 
time to seek the land of sleep and rest on the 
banks of the Bosphorus. Besides, without the in- 
tervention of any one, save a kind word from a 
Missouri and Tennessee member, this oriental 
compliment came to me directly, gracefully, and 
spontaneously from the President alone. The Sen- 
ate gave me confirmation quite complimentary 
without referring it; and these facts, together with 
my pleasant reminiscences of the happy days spent 
in the olden capital of the Greek Empire (upon two 
visits to the Orient), were predominating reasons 
why I propose to have a respite in the land of the 
Ottoman." 

It was not, however, without some hesitation 
that Mr. Gox reached his decision. "I am half 
inclined at times to give it up," he wrote from 
Washington shortly after his appointment, "but 
for this 'demnition grind' in Congress." And 
again: "It seems pretty hard to go away from this 
country, but you do not know what a relief it is to 
be removed from this everlasting grind of Con- 
gress, that produces so little." Nearly thirty 
years of this "grind" had not been without its 
effect — the brain was weary and called for rest. 

In the midst of his preparations for embarking 
for his new field of duty, he was summoned to the 
bedside of his dying mother. From his old home, 
Zanesville, Ohio, on April 4, the day following her 
death, he writes: "I was not unaware of my moth- 
er's illness and its probable termination. I was 
summoned just in time to receive her conscious 



130 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

blessing, and it was a great comfort to her and to 
her son. We bury her body to-morrow. If I go 
abroad I do not have the 'lengthening chain' of 
filial fear ever dragging me homeward — that is 
one of the sad compensations." In a later letter, 
again referring to his mother's death: "It is a hard 
blow for me, as I was attached to my mother be- 
yond all thought or words to tell." 

Meanwhile he was engrossed in the preparation 
for the printers of his volume, "Three Decades of 
Federal Legislation," an elaborate review of the 
times of which he had been a conspicuous part. 
Anxiety to complete this work before sailing post- 
poned for a time his departure for Turkey. Mean- 
while, too, reluctance to part with a Representa- 
tive who had served them so faithfully and so long 
had led to a powerful pressure on the part of Mr. 
Cox's constituents to induce him to decline the 
mission and remain in Congress. His longing for 
the rest, so much needed, decided him. Under 
date of May 15, in a letter to an old friend, he 
wrote : 

"My opinion is that I have got to go. Not as a 
galley slave to his work, but I ought to go, for 
there is nothing worth being in Congress for now 
except a scramble, and worry, and wrangle, and 
jangle, and tangle. Tell your friend that if he 
had only served twenty-five years in Congress, as 
I have, he would know what it is to be among the 
heathen, and seek even a fresh, beautiful, anno- 
tated edition of heathen. * * * It is a curious, 
strange experience for me that after I had reached 
my acme, and the ladder was all golden and beau- 
tiful like that of eTacob's, somebody jerks it from 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 131 

under me, and I have got to float away serenely 
into an Oriental haven for Democratic virtue." 

On the evening of the 8th of June the new Min- 
ister to Turkey was tendered at the Hoffman 
House in New York, a farewell banquet. Gath- 
ered around the table were the representative 
men of the metropolis, including ex-Mayors Cooper 
and Ely, Eoswell P. Flower, Congressmen Dors- 
heimer and Hewitt, Everett P. Wheeler, Edward 
Kearney, Herman Oelrichs, Judges Lawrence, In- 
graham, Van Brunt, Barrett, Gildersleeve and 
Truax, Joseph J. O'Donohue and others. Abram 
S. Hewitt, afterwards Mayor of New York, pre- 
sided and made the opening speech. Also present 
was the Turkish Minister, Tewflk Pasha, In the 
course of his brilliant speech, in reply to the toast, 
"Our Guest," Mr. Cox said: 

"Adequately to acknowledge this climax of per- 
sonal honor, one should have thoughts impearled 
upon vestments of Oriental light and imagery 
sweeter than the roses of Cashmere. The charm, 
the mis-en-scene, and the company give to this 
night's entertainment something of that bewilder- 
ing enchantment which one might enjoy for a 
thousand and one nights and never surfeit. Could 
I have the melody of the Persian nightingale who 
sang his love to the rose, in the tender idyls of 
Haflz; could I draw from the depths of the Brah- 
minical philosophy, whose generalizations are the 
fountain of our Emersonian transcendentalism; 
could I evoke from nature her hidden poetry and 
primal meaning, I could perhaps answer for this 
banquet of affectionate regard given to one whose 
life has been a life of labor, not untinged with 
some romance. 



132 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"Coleridge has said that, in pursuing his muse, 
he had his own exceeding great reward. It is not 
always so in pursuing politics. But to me, politics 
as I have endeavored to follow them in their fickle- 
ness, have been for a quarter of a century a great 
source of enjoyment and a great incentive to prac- 
tical exertion. 

"Upon an occasion like this, surely I may be al- 
lowed to improve it by referring to some points — 
even points of the compass — which are somewhat 
personal. I am of the west — of Ohio — not the 
greater, but still the great west. For some rea- 
sons, mostly domestic, a reflux wave brought me 
to the east. After two generations from some tall 
tower or Trinity steeple, I can overlook the ances- 
tral congressional district along the shores of east 
Jersey. Perhaps this will account for my tender 
relations to the life-saving service, and my inher- 
ited tendencies toward congressional pursuits. 

"Although from the west, and having a pseudo- 
nym which indicates only a descending orb, I am 
here to-night as the recipient of an oriental ova- 
tion, whose oriental magnificence is equaled only 

by its oriental significance. 

* « « « « 

"There is something still more attractive than 
diplomacy or commerce in the Orient. It is the 
land of a deep blue sky whose concave is set thick 
with stars. The eastern sky, with its marvelous 
purity and beauty, early developed the spirtuali- 
ties of human nature. If it also called out sensu- 
alism there was a compensation beyond all ex- 
pression, in the purity of its thought and in the 
elevation and unity of its worship. When the 



SAMUEL S,ULLIVAN COX 133 

Koran prohibited men from drinking- wine, but 
gave full privileges of water and coffee, the Pay- 
nim voluptuary was not altogether enshrined 
among the beatitudes of the demigods, Epicurus 
may now and then sit with his Chibouk cross-leg- 
ged on the banks of the Bosphorus aiS dreamful as 
any German metaphysician. But beyond and 
above all, from the land of India, Arabia, Egypt, 
and even from the desert places, came the religions 
which have made mankind gaze hopefully and 
earnestly into the unseen world. Whether He- 
brew, Christian, Brahmin, Mohammedan, the wor- 
shipper bowed only to the one Invisible Supreme 
being. Faith in each lifted man by a higher code 
of ethics into a higher plane of thought. The relig- 
ions which drew from the Holy of Holies and from 
the infinite deeps which environ the eastern sky 
had and have an inspiration that gives solace to 
the suffering and dying of every land, and enlight- 
ens our last moments with the hope that takes 
from the grave its sting and from death its vic- 
tory. 

"It is a difficult thing to give up old associations 
and to form new habitudes. Since I have re- 
signed my place at the capitol I have wandered 
about through its corridors and halls like the 
ghost of my departed self. Almost every image 
seemed to wave "adieu." Even the old hall in 
which I first sers-ed to the new chamber wherein 
I made the first speech, echoed with personal 
thoughts and pleasant associations. But there 
must be an end of all occupations, and, for a 
wholesome, thorough living, there must be more 
or less of change. We must sometimes fold our 



134 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

tents like the Arabs. No longer for me the 
speaker's gavel, with its "rap," "rap," "rap," no 
longer the fierce debate and the loud applause 
"which made ambition virtue." No longer the 
five minutes debate upon a sixpenny appropria- 
tion. No longer the previous question, that dyna- 
mite which destroys so much of parliamentary 
power. "Othello's occupation's gone" — gone to 
the Hellespont." 

Accompanied by his wife, he sailed, in June, on 
the Gallia, but they were several days 
delayed in their voyage by a misad- 
venture — their ship having broken her 
shaft in mid-ocean. The first of August 
found him at his post, in the Turkish capital. Un- 
der date Constantinople, August 9, 1885, he wrote 
to a friend he had left behind: "For fear that you 
are anxious about us — know that we are, and that 
we are here! at our post. In vain the Gallia broke 
her shaft — it fell hurtless and we moved on to our 
goal. Ten days ago we saluted the Bosphorus, and 
were met by our flag and our friends. It was a re- 
newal of old times; and yet it is a sort of exile. 
But still what a rest is here! The laps of the wat- 
ers almost at the foundation of our house and 
home at Therapia — an hour above the city — makes 
music for us, and its breezes blow health from Cau- 
casus. I am already improving. My health was 
below par; now it is, say, 65 per cent, above, and 
going up. Is this caused by freedom in Turkey — 
from all political worry?" 

"Twice before my appointment as Envoy to Tur- 
key," he wrote, in introducing the story of his offi- 
cial life at the Turkish capital, "I had been to Con- 
stantinople. On the first occasion in 1851, in life's 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX J 35 

morning, we sailed thither in a French steamer up 
the Mediterranean. On the second occasion, 
thirty years afterward, we traveled to Turkey 
from the Land of the Midnight Sun. Unlike our 
first voyage, the difficulty in reaching Constanti- 
nople in 1885 was at the start. There were strong 
bonds which attached us to our home and city, and 
myself to long-accustomed Congressional life. It 
was as difficult to leave the harbor as it was to ob- 
tain the consent of constituents. Then, in mid- 
ocean, among the icebergs of Newfoundland, the 
steamer of the Cunard Line — the Gallia — broke 
her shaft as if reluctant to bear us away. Our 
ocean voyage was nearly a score of days when it 
should have been but half of that time. Between 
Washington and Constantinople forty days are 
allowed the Minister. Every one of these days 
was occupied, partly by the misadventure to the 
Gallia, and partly by reason of the earthly rest at 
London, Paris, Munich, Vienna and Buda-Pesth." 
At last they found themselves on the wharf of the 
Turkish capital. 

As they landed they were met by the Sultan's 
Foreign Minister, Assim Pasha, and bidden a cor- 
dial welcome. The residence assigned to the United 
States minister was beautifully situated at Ther- 
apia, on the banks of the Bosphorus, a 
few miles above Constantinople. "The home 
in which we are esconced (at Ther- 
apia) for the summer," he wrote, "has 
one window looking out upon terraces up- 
ward three hundred feet. This garden is leafy and 
green in the moist warmth from the waves below. 
Its roses, magnolias, heliotropes, jessamine, Vir- 



136 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

ginia and other creepers make an exquisite pic- 
ture. Out of another window there is a prospect 
of the hills of Buyukdere — one of the beautiful vil- 
lages of the upper Bosphorus, where my col- 
leagues of many Legations reside. The clappo- 
tage of the waves against the stone quay almost 
under our window lulls one into a poetic swoon." 
The contrast between this and the life in Congress, 
with all its whirl of excitement and worry, was 
doubtless most refreshing to a man who had had 
almost three decades of the latter. 

The sad news of the death of Gen. Grant was 
nearly a month traveling to Constantinople. It 
was made the occasion of a meeting of the Ameri- 
can colony to do honor to the hero's memory. "As 
General Grant," wrote Mr. Cox, in his account 
thereof, "was from my native state of Ohio — the 
home of the Shermans, Sheridans, McPhersons 
and McCooks of our conflict — it was my special 
pride to be known in Congress as his devoted 
friend, perhaps next in that body to Mr. Washburn 
of Illinois. It was my privilege, just before the 
close of the war, when Grant's army was before 
Petersburg and Eichmond, to be the General's 
guest; and just before leaving Congress I had the 
honor to introduce the first bill to reinstate him in 
the army. This relation gave me the privilege to 
speak with emphasis of the eventful life which had 
just closed, and in which cloud and sunshine so 
strangely alternated." No sublimer eulogy of the 
immortal Grant came from any lips than that 
which Mr. Cox gave to the American colony on the 
far off shores of the Bosphorus. 

In a letter to an American friend under date 
Constantinople, September 10, 1885, Mr. Cox thus 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 137 

pleasantly refers to his new book and his life at 
Therapia: 

"The book ('Three Decades') is out (1 Sept.). It 
pleases me. It was close, hard, overtasking work, 
I wonder how I survived it; and yet I look now 
calmly in the mid-September at the white pinions 
of the bluest blue sea, ever God-closed, the Eux- 
ine, as it rolls its murmurs to our very door or 
quai, under tunical breezes that have made rose- 
ate our Caucasian ancestral cheek! For the winds 
blow over the blue from the Caucasian peaks. Yet 
there is quarantine here — four days — why? Be- 
cause poor Spain suffers — and therefore the 
mouth of the Black Sea is shut by a previous 
question raised in Hidalgo-land." 

Musing, in the same letter, on a situation in 
borne politics, it occurs to him that "after a man 
passes twenty-five years in Congress unscathed; 
and goes over the ocean on a broken shaft in sev- 
enteen days; and meets the Sultan with a Sublime 
Porte; and can sail in the United States yacht 
launch to the Cyaraean rocks, and go through like 
one Jason of the Argo; and never lose a 'fo' top 
sail/ or bilge a marlingspike — he is fit to give 
advice discreetly to a new Administration. But," 
he asks," will they take it?" The diplomat's divorce 
from American politics was not yet absolute. The 
dolce far niente influence of Eastern life had not 
yet its perfect work. "Here I am," he writes a 
few days later, "from the arena of politics ever so 
aloof! It is a sensation." In the following he 
describes to an American friend a street spectacle 
on the occasion of the Sultan's appearance in pub- 
lic: 



138 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"Constantinople, Sept. 21, '85. 

I went down to see the Sultan yesterday by spe- 
cial invitation to all the Ministers. He "received" 
or would, at the opening of "Bairum," a festal 
occasion of five days. Business suspended and 
things Sabbath-like among the pious people. The 
truth is, the Turks are a religious people, more so 
than the Armenians or Greeks or — us! Well, 
half way down (got up at 5 A. M.) met a despatch 
boat with letter from Munio Pasha. (You know 
Munio? No? Why, he's head chamberlain!) to 
say that the business of State so pressing that 
reception postponed. There is a threatened war 
between Bulgaria and Turkey, and the palace was 
in a pother. Nevertheless, Mrs. Cox being in full 
dress, and myself also, concluded to land and see 
the Sultan come out of the mosque and palace en 
route to his kiosk at Yildiz. Directly, say an 
hour, while we waited at a guard house, about 
one hundred and fifty Beys, Agas, Effendis and 
Pachas came along, all gilt, in their private car- 
riages; then came soldiers and soldiers; at last a 
four-horse gilded coach, with two pachas in front 
— Osman and another I couldn't recognize — and 
the Sultan behind in the back seat. Then along 
pell-mell, higglety-pigglety, on horseback, the 
gayest circus riders you ever saw, full jump, 
mostly grey barbs and splendid riders. Some of 
the head Pachas colored as ebony. Well, we saw 
it all, and came home happy to listen to the music 
of the murmurous Bos!" 

His partiality for the solar orb manifested itself 
on every occasion. His sobriquet "Sunset" was 
conferred upon him, as has been shown, because 




iMEHEMET-COX'S FAITHFUL KAVASS.'iGUARDj, 
While U S. Minister in Turkey. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 139 

of his enthusiastic description of a sunset, while 
an Ohio editor, and because the initials of his 
name corresponded to it. The titles chosen for his 
books of travel, "Winter Sunbeams," "Arctic 
"Sunbeams," "Orient Sunbeams," a® well as the 
genial glow of his own nature, further illustrated 
this characteristic. On the shores of the Bos- 
phorus he found sweet content. For, in a letter 
dated October 7, he exclaims: "I have had sun- 
beams, and beams and beams, until heaven is dark 
with glory here. This is the land of light and 
romance." 

The new Minister's first formal reception by his 
Sultanic Majesty was set down for a certain day 
by the First Chamberlain, and then postponed. 
The reasons for the postponement are curious and 
interesting. The United States Minister was re- 
quired to furnish the Turkish Minister of Foreign 
Affairs with a copy, in both French and English, 
of the speech he was to make to the Sultan on the 
occasion of his presentation to that august per- 
sonage. "I had more difficulty," confessed Mr. 
Cox, "about the French than the English portion." 
It was the French translation that created the 
mare's nest. One sentence in our tongue read in 
part: "The United States would not, if they could, 
depart from the invariable policy which forbids 
all entanglements in foreign affairs." Although 
the speech caused our Minister, as he confesses, 
"barrels of perspiration," yet one word in the 
translation became almost a casus belli. It was 
the word "entanglements." Mr. Cox's amusing 
account follows: 

"I had in my mind Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress as to all foreign entangling alliances. There 



140 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

is no synonym in French except the word which, 
after much research, I had selected. When my 
French speech was scanned by the leading linguist 
in the Foreign Office in Stamboul, assisted by a 
cohort of polyglots, they lit upon the word 'en- 
chevetrement.' Whait could it mean? Was it an 
American torpedo, or polysyllabic dynamite for 
the overthrow of the dynasty? Whatever might 
have been their opinion of the explosive and peril- 
ous composition, I was satisfied, from intimations, 
that the delay of my reception for some days was 
occasioned by the confusion incident to this terri- 
ble six-footed word. The speech was finally ac- 
cepted in the sense in which it was intended, and 
thenceforth the respective countries never ceased 
to dwell together in diplomatic unity." 

The eagerly awaited reception by this Oriental 
monarch, Abdul Hamid II., came at last, and was 
on a scale of splendor and ceremony to which oc- 
cidental nations are entire strangers. "As we 
are ushered into the presence," says Mr. Cox in 
describing the scene, "we make three bows — one 
at the door on entering, the second half way, and 
the last when we stop a few feet from his person. 
We do not bow as low as the Turkish Ministers, 
but we do our best!"IIe had seen the Sultan twice 
before — first in 1851, when His Majesty was a boy 
of eleven, in company with his father; next in 
1881, when Mr. Cox was presented to His Majesty 
by Creneral Wallace, then our Minister to Turkey. 
"I confess," he writes, "before I had an idea of 
being here in any but a tourist's capacity, to an 
enthusiasm for this monarch. He is a king every 
inch, and without any dramatic ostentation. " He 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 141 

deserves great regard for his rare ability. He is 
his own adviser. Amid his troubles and cares, 
and with the populations of the divers religions 
and races, which he must reconcile to rule, he is 
not unworthy of the fame of Abdul Med j id, whose 
memory is to me a part of my earliest association 
with the city of Constantinople." 

The coming to Constantinople of a new Ameri- 
can Minister to a neighboring kingdom, en route 
to his post, during the November following is thus 
duly chronicled: ''Our Minister to Greece has just 
arrived, and I owe him a devoir. He is ahead of 
me, at first sight, in the diplomatic game. He is 
Minister to Roumania, Servia, and Greece. He 
holds three kings and three queens. That is his 
pot — or flush, or what is it? But I hold one king 
(Abdul Hamid II.) and all the rest of the pack 
queens!" 

In a New Year's greeting "from the Salt Seas 
of Marmora and Euxine to the salt — ^the 'old salts' 
— of Onondaga," he confesses that he "felt a little 
funny when Congress met and I not there. But," 
he added, "it is a good time here to observe impar- 
tially the doings and sayings." Evidently the 
"sunbeams" were not oppressive on New Year's, 
for he writes: "The winter here is damp bad — 
worse than Washington. Summers superb. I 
have been indoors for a week with rheumatix; but 
about well. Am writing despatches and reading 
up. Such a reader you never saw." 

With improved weather the barometer of the 
American Minister's humor went up also, as is 
evident from the following sunburst: 

"Constantinople, Jan'y 18, '86. 
"Mrs. Cox is enchanted with the magic of this 



142 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

realm. I guess and persuade myself I am the 
magic ! ! When the magic goes to N. Y., expect the 
'Excellenzia' — as they call her — also. It nearly 
kills me to be 'called' at all; but little Samuel was! 
But now here all call me — 'Excellency/ 'Sou' 
'Excellency!' etc., and it is too much!! Overdose! 
It hurts me in'nerds. However, it is polite; and I 
reciprocate, and believe all to be excellent, prima 
facie, which is a violent presumption. The 
weather is getting better, and so am I. It was 
horrible and wet; but Egypt is not quite such a 
cynosure, or Greece, as it was for delight and 
refuge. * * * The papers say I play the flute. 
Laws! How the journals lie!'' 

That Minister Cox had fully recovered from his 
"rheumatix" before January had gone by, is evi- 
dent from the following private note in which, 
among other things, he describes his experience in 
teaching a Turk what he knew about farming: 

"U. S. Legation, 
"Constantinople, Jan. 2G, '86. 
"I am here at work and again on my pedal ex- 
tremities, using them more than the other extrem- 
ity. The weather has come like ethereal mildness, 
gentle spring. Now the festive peasant, etc., etc. 
which reminds me of my magnificent agricultural 
experiment the other day. Mrs. Cox drove me out 
— I mean a coachman did — upon the grand hills 
and unto the superb valleys that suburb this city. 
There are, be it known, fine farms, and gardens 
plenty upon these hills. From them one may os^er- 
look Asia, and almost Africa. Well, we saw a 
man, a full breasted, well turbaned Turk, with a 




-J 

O 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 1 43 

goad, and a sash of endless length, driving two no- 
ble oxen, descendants of the ox which forded here 
with Europa many dim centuries ago, worthy to be 
sacrificed to Jove, who had retired behind Olym- 
pus, 70 miles away — when I took the plough han- 
dle! There was only one handle. Ceres smiled 
sere-ously! I "hawed" and 'gee'd" the oxen, but 
they did not understand the lingo of Ohio cat- 
tle. Box and Cox is an old farce; but Ox and Cox 
— well, I brought out of that field more mud than 
Cincinnatus did when he left the only "share" he 
took stock in, and made Rome howl for him as a 
patriot and a "Cult." My shoe black charged me 
five piasters extra for the soil I did not turn up 
except on my boots! And this from the farmer's 
friend, just from the Sciatic Court; and in view of 
an Asciatic who regarded my effort with earthly 
gravity." 

Whether the American minister made due re- 
port to the State Department at Washington of 
his progress in inculcating the principles of agri- 
culture, a la Americaine, in the Turkish brain, he 
has not informed us! 

Among the diversions of the diplomat during 
the winter of 1886 was a revisit of Greece and 
Egypt. At Athens he heard of the deaths of two 
eminent Americans whom he had supported for 
the Presidency, Horatio Seymour and General 
Hancock. "Yes," he wrote, "our great and good 
leaders are going to their long home. I am about 
the only one of the ante-bellum men of public life 
left." By April first the tourists were back in 
Constantinople. A letter of that date thus refers 
to the interesting journey: 

"We have been in Egypt. Need I say our trip 



144 SAMUEL SULLIYAN OCX. 

up the Nile had all the charm of novelty, as well 
as of unusual social and festive displays, occa- 
sioned by the four nationalities officially repre- 
sented on our boat — three of Europe, Kussia, Ger- 
many, and Sweden, and the one from America. 
The four flags floated from our little steamer, and 
naturally the Arabic race were curious as to the 
occasion of so much display. But the old temples 
and ruins are all that has ever been claimed for 
them; massive and unique beyond idea." 

The American Minister and his wife shortly 
after their return to Constantinople were 
entertained at a State dinner by the Sultan. In 
a private letter penned the next day, he thus re- 
ferred to the event: "I have just gone through a 
royal scene! The long-promised dinner from the 
Sultan came off last night, 29th May. Mrs. Cox 
was toiletted until she beat me to death in my 
little 'swallow' — but when it came to the swallow 
of the menu I was there ! I had been reading up 
in Ottoman history, and knew the 29th May was a 
'Big Day' for Constantinople and the Ottoman; 
for Mahomet II. came in and took things from 
Constantine Palaeogus on that day, 433 years 
before! Observe the sequel. Well, we went up to 
the palace of Yildiz and through the labyrinth of 
rare gardens and pleasure houses until we were 
received by His Majesty. But I must send you a 
paper for the particulars." An interesting inci- 
dent at the conclusion of the royal dinner was the 
decoration of Mrs. Cox with the Grand Cordon of 
the Benevolences, the Chefekat. The ceremony is 
thus described by Mr. Cox : "After being seated the 
dragoman surprises my wife and the company. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 145 

He approaches her with a box. 'I have something 
to show you, Madam/ he says. 'Yes,' she responds. 
'It is lovely outside. What is it?' He opens it, 
remarking, 'Shall I put it on you?' 'What do you 
mean?' she inquires. 'I have the pleasure of dec- 
orating you, at the Sultan's wish, with the Grand 
Order of the Chefekat.' Thereupon he throws the 
cordon over her head, and, with the aid of the Ger- 
man Ambassadress, who is familiar with the 
decoration, it is decorously arranged. It is a sur- 
prise as well as an honor, coming as it does almost 
within one year of our service with the American 
Legation. It is a star in brown, gold and green 
enamel, with diamond brilliants. It has five 
points and twenty-six diamonds on each point. 
Surely no woman of good training would refuse 
such a gift! It is fastened upon the front of the 
corsage, and, with the cordon, it serves as an orna- 
ment to the dress. The Pashas, the aides and the 
officers make their felicitations upon the happy 
event. My wife told me confidentially afterward 
that she thought for a brief, ineffable moment that 
she was a bride again. This decoration origin- 
ated with the present Sultan, or his father, in 
order to honor Lady Layard for her services in the 
hospitals during the Crimean War. It is called 
the Order of Good Works." Mr. Cox afterward 
confidentially informed the writer that the sight 
of this Chefekat caused an almost irresistible 
feline impulse to meouwing! 

The Sultan's clever way of dismissing his 
guests is worth telling here: "The Sultan now 
arises. He will detain us no longer. It is eti- 
quette at the palace to remain until the Sultan 



146 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

gives the signal to leave. This he generally does 
by a glance at his watch, saying: 'I fear you will 
be late;' or, 'Perhaps I am detaining you.' He 
shalves hands with the ladies first, and then the 
gentlemen, with their best grace, back out. The 
bouquets are distributed to the ladies." Appar- 
ently there was one part of the palace our Ameri- 
can Minister was not allowed to inspect. "As we 
retire, after many kindly greetings," he writes, 
"we look in vain for lattice and curtain to indicate 
the harem. Every window opens into a beautiful 
garden, and every garden is filled with flowers 
and sparkling fountains. It is a fairy scene; but 
no houri." 

The summer of 1886 was spent among the Isles 
of the Princes, mainly on the Isle of Prinkipo, in 
the Propontis. "There were nine muses. The 
Princes Isles are the same in number as those sis- 
ters. Their beauty and allurements are as varied 
as the hues of the waters around them." From 
Prinkipo, soon after taking up his summer resi- 
dence there, he writes: "Such is life here that I 
am getting better, on a lovely isle, with only 5,000 
Greeks and lots of good breeze and piney woods." 
Here, at last, he seems to have realized that dream 
of complete rest for which he had left his country. 
One of his letters breezily describes a visit to a 
neighboring island: "Tempus — early in the morn- 
ing, by the sunrise. Strange noises in the isle. 
Roosters and jackasses. Both make music in har- 
N !uy with various venders of verdant vegetables! 
Crowd of hamals, gamins, fishermen, etc., on the 
scala (quai), looking at the mystery of the screw- 
going vessel. These were the circumadjacent cir- 
cumstances of our condition as we moved out of 




^ 1 

I ? 
i I 

§ ? 

o « 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 147 

our harbor of Prinkipo this morning to visit our 
neighbor isle of Halki (Grec. Chalki, or copper). 
This is the isle the copper came from that made 
the Colossus of Rhodes. Here, too, are the theo- 
logical seminaries of the Orthodox Greek Church, 
as old as Justinian, too; and some of their old 
churches and monasteries look it. To this isle, 
whose profile is that of a Spanish saddle, and 
whose tops are crowned with colleges, and whose 
valley and coast line is a pretty Greek town, — we 
direct our prow, Ulysses like, toward the Isles of 
Syrens — for the isle is full of beauteous females, 
who almost rival those of Prinkipo! These Isles 
of the Blest, nine of them, lie (all but two) close 
to each other. We have the finest in all in the 
neat lay of the land — rock and mountain and inter- 
vale." 

At Prinkipo the Minister was not distant from 
the sphere of active diplomacy, which, he tells us, 
"had no surcease during the summer and fall." 
In the story of his enchanted life among the clas- 
sic scenes of the Princess Isles, he writes in clos- 
ing: 

"The story of our summer is told. The wreaths 
begin to wither on the tomb. A thousand 
thoughts and studies hang over them. But these 
are not dead garlands. The angels of memory 
will resume their places at the gate of this para- 
dise! The flaming sword drives us into the old 
and busy world, under the glaring sun and the 
uncloistered heat and dust of our earnest and 
active American life; but amidst all the turmoil 
and worry of that life, we shall turn to the 'Pleas- 
ures of Prinkipo.' " 
"In the shadow of thy pines, by the shores of thy 

sea, 
On the hills of thy beauty, our heart is with thee." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

RETURNS TO THE UNITED STATES AND CONGRESS. 

As the summer wore away, with the accumula- 
tion of a new store of health, came the desire to 
be once more amid the activities of American 
politics. "Circumstances," to adopt his own 
words, "partly domestic and partly political," led 
him to resign his office as Minister and to return 
home to resume his former position as a Member 
of Congress from the city of New York. 

As to his reason for the change, we have his own 
statement: "It was not because of any dissatisfac- 
tion with the service, nor from any derogative 
treatment by the officers of the Porte or the Sul- 
tan, nor because of any disenchantment of the 
Orient. The heart has no reason; or, rather, it 
has reasons of its own. Call it homesickness, or 
patriotism, or an inclination after old and fixed 
parliamentary habits, or the ineradicable desire to 
be near one's own — and you have the best explan- 
ation that can be made for my premeditated and 
unprecipitated return. I had done all that a Min- 
ister of my ability could do to place the Legation 
and the American interests in excellent condition." 
From Constantinople, September 11, he wrote to 
a friend: "Your letter found me packing for home. 
We sail from Havre 2d Oct. for N. Y. Hurrah! I 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 149 

already feel tlie sweet lager-bier breezes from the 
Isle of Coney!" 

Shortly after his resignation and return home 
he received the decoration of the ''Order of the 
Mejidieh" from his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan 
Abdul Hamid, the decoration of the ''Order of the 
Chefakat" having, as we have seen, already been 
bestowed on the Minister's wife in Turkey. Both 
these decorations are at present in the care of the 
National museum in AVashington. 

An enthusiastic welcome awaited Mr. Cox on his 
arrival home. 

He returned to And himself twice a candidate 
at the same election — a candidate for the seat in 
the Forty-ninth Congress vacated by the resigna- 
tion of Joseph Pulitzer, as well as a candidate for 
the full term of the Fiftieth Congress. To both 
seats he was elected by his old-time majorities. 
"So far as I have been able to ascertain," said Rep- 
resentative Cummings, "Mr. Cox is the only man 
who has ever been twice elected to the same Con- 
gress" — alluding to his second election to the 
Forty-ninth Congress. His reappearance in the 
House of Representatives, which had sadly missed 
his familiar figure and the genial warmth of his 
presence, was gladly welcomed by colleagues of 
all parties. On that camp-ground Richard was 
indeed himself again — once more on his native 
heath. 

In the autumn of 1888 a strong pressure was 
brought to bear upon Mr. Cox to resign from con- 
gress and accept the Democratic nomination for 
Mayor of New York. He firmly refused such use 
of his name, although his nomination would have 
been equivalent to an election. He felt that his 



150 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

proper sphere Mas the Hall of Representatives. He 
accepted a renomination to congress and his re- 
election followed as of course. It was his last. He 
died before the flfty-lirst congress, of which he 
was a member-elect, met. 

In the fiftieth congress, which began its exist- 
ence March 4, 1887, and expired March 4, 1889, Mr. 
Cox chose the chairmanship of the Census commit- 
tee, and was assigned to that position by Speaker 
Carlisle. Preparations were making for the elev- 
enth census, a work in which he took a leading in- 
terest. The bill under which the enumeration of 
inhabitants and statistics of the industries of the 
country were taken, in 1890, was reported by him. 
In its fulness and elaboration he took a pardona- 
ble pride. He was proud of the increase in both 
w^ealth and numbers, of the component parts of 
the union, and rejoiced in all signs of public pros- 
perity. To measures before that congress having 
for their object the irrigation of the arid plains of 
the far west, and their restoration through a sup- 
ply of water, to fertility, Mr. Cox gave earnest sup- 
port. As object lessons he pointed to Syria and 
Asia Minor, where, by the destruction of moun- 
tain forests and neglect of irrigation works that 
once existed, water supplies had been lost, and 
sterility had ensued where once were fertile lands 
sustaining great populations and prosperous 
states. Another proposition that enlisted his act- 
ive sympathy and earnest support related to the 
admission of four new states. Considerations of 
party expediency, which arrayed many of his par- 
ty associates against giving the far west additional 
votes in the electoral college, had not weight with 
Mr. Cox, who disavowed such considerations as of 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 151 

too narrow a guage for broad .statesmanship. He 
looked upon the rise of the free commonwealths 
in the northwest with only a patriot's eye. That 
his efforts were fully appreciated was made mani- 
fest by the pox^ular ovation which greeted him on 
his flying trip through those new states in the sum- 
mer of 1889, a few weeks before his untimely 
death. "On the 4th of July," says one account, 
"Mr. Cox stood in the midst of assembled thous- 
ands of his fellow citizens at Huron, in the then 
territory of Dakota. No more imposing or grander 
ovation was ever given to an American citizen 
than was given him on that occasion. The prair- 
ies, the towns, and the villages for miles around 
were deserted, for their inhabitants would look 
upon their great deliverer. These people would 
hear the voice of the eminent statesman who, in 
the House of Representatives, had raised his voice 
for fair ~Jaj. They were not drawn t<u the place so 
mtich to hear the great orator a^ to h.^k upon the 
man whose great heart had borne him beyond the 
line which his party had set for him. He w^as their 
hero. They pressed upon him, for they deemed him 
something nobler than a mere orator or statesman. 
They felt him to be a fellow citizen, kind, generous 
and full of good will." 

It was the middle of August when Mr. Cox, with 
his wife, arrived home from the trip above de- 
scribed. He hurried to Manhattan Beach, as many 
times before w hen wearied by overwork or over- 
travel, to regain needed rest. In a hasty note to 
a friend he said: "Hither I have hied to the salt 
sea beach where I correct my abnormal condition 
of health and my printer's proofs. To-night the 
waves dash high over the walks where yesterday 



152 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

we gallanted each other. It's fine! Here come 
those thoughts which make one sedate; for here 
we walk 

"Thoughtful, silent, on the solemn shore 
Of that vast ocean we must sail so soon." 

Little he thought how soon! A note dated Au- 
gust 25 from the Manhattan Beach hotel, "this gor- 
geous marine hospital," as he styled it, the note 
written while the ears were "dimmed with the 
music of the band," said: "We leave in the morn- 
ing for home." 

Prophetic words! It was "home" indeed to 
which he was going, and so soon! 

The last occasion on which he went out of the 
house was Friday evening, August 30, to attend 
the "grand annual summer night's festival of the 
New York Letter Carriers' Association," at the 
Empire City Coloseum and Washington Park. He 
had been ill two weeks. That one evening, feeling 
better, he v»'as urged and consented to ride up in 
a close carriarge for the purpose of receiving from 
the letter carriers a large and beautiful album, 
which they had been waiting six months to pre- 
sent him. He professed not to be much wearied; 
he made a brave effort to keep up. It was, how- 
ever, his last effort to leave his room. Eleven 
days later the end came. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



A RETROSPECT. 



Samuel Sullivan Cox was just thirty-two years 
of age when he was iirst elected, to a seat in Con- 
gress. His last election to membership in that 
body was when he had doubled those years, and 
was just sixty-four. His congressional service 
was cotemporaneous with the incumbency of every 
president, save one, from Buchanan to McKinley. 
That exception vras Pi'esident Andrew Johnson. 
While Mr. Cox was in the public service at one 
end of Pennsylvania avenue there sat in the White 
House, at the other end of that historic avenue, in 
their order, eight presidents: elames Buchanan, 
Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Eutherford 
B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, 
Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. Of 
these he was in political sympathy with only two 
— Buchanan and Cleveland — and with the former 
the bonds were broken almost at the very thresh- 
hold of their association in public life, and never 
altogether re-cemented. 

His Democracy was of the Jeffersonian order. 
He was a firm believer not only in the right, but 
as well in the capacity of the people to rule. 
Throughout his long public career he strenuously 
opposed any and every proposition to abridge or 
abbreviate this right. His democracy was inher- 
ited from his ancestors on both sides. His break 



154 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

with the Buchanan administration was because he 
saw that administration attempting to throttle 
the will of the people of Kansas by foisting upon 
the new State the Lecompton constitution. His 
first speech in the House — the first ever made in 
the present Hall of Representatives — was a gaunt- 
let thrown to that administration which, he be- 
lieved, was attempting to strangle popular sov- 
ereignty. Whenever his party refused to follow 
the teachings of Thomas Jefferson and to remain 
true to the people, Mr. Cox broke loose from party 
ties, and obeyed the dictates of his own conscience. 
In obedience to these dictates, in his last 
session in Congress he separated from most of his 
party associates in advocating the admission of 
four new States, believing that such questions 
should be decided on broad grounds of public pol- 
icy, without consideration of their probable effect 
on this party or that. The scope of his horizon 
was too broad for a party-at-any-price follower. 

In the album of a classmate at Brown Univer- 
sity, just as he was leaving that institution, he 
made this entry, in which he refers to his inherited 
love of the party he served so well: 

''Samuel Sullivan Cox, Zanesville, O. Born 
about midnight, 30 Sept., 1824. Expect to study 
law if I don't get better. Shall live in Ohio till I 
die, provided I live till I get there. The friend 
who reads this will, I hope, forget the many faults 
and recollect the few (very few) good characteris- 
tics of the writer. That he has anything to rec- 
ommend him to recollection he modestly doubts, 
yet he would be remembered by a classmate as he 
himself expects to remember. One failing he re- 
joices in — Ills 'unterrified D(»mocracy.' He drank 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 155 

in with his mother's milk the spirit of liberty, and 
tradition says that at his birth a scroll of fire 
danced around the bedposts with the words writ- 
ten thereon: 'Sains populi suprema lex.'" 

He was ever true to the spirit of the tradition. 

His was too genial a mature to brood long over 
wrong done him, or permanently to treasure the 
spirit of revenge. Years after the Lecompton 
controversy had passed into history, Mr. Cox, still 
in Congress, received one day from the venerable 
Buchanan, then in retirement and nearing the end 
of his eventful life, a letter almost pathetic, asking 
of him a personal favor. ''Only to you," said the 
letter, "can I lok now for such kindly favors," He 
looked not in vain. The recollection of decapi- 
tated postmasters in his district did not deter Mr. 
Cox from gladly seeking to oblige Buchanan, the 
ex-president, with a zeal not a whit behind that 
with which he opposed him as President when he 
believed him in the wrong. So kindly a nature 
could not long carry a spirit of resentment. 

At one time or another, during his long Con- 
gressional service, he was a member of almost 
every important committee of the House. He 
served on Revolutionary Claims, the Ways and 
Means, always standing for the free trade princi- 
ple, Appropriations, Foreign Affairs,Naval Affairs, 
Banking and Currency, the Census, and others. 
Of several of these he was, when his party was in 
the ascendancy, chairman. Although the drudg- 
ery of committee work was hardly to his taste, he 
was a faithful and conscientious worker in com- 
mittee, and no member's services were prized more 
highly than his. Capacity for details was espec- 
ially shown by him in the preparation for the 



156 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

tenth and eleventh census, by the committee over 
which he presided. It was a revelation to the 
census-makers. He was regent of the Smithson- 
ian institution for many years, and took a warm 
and active interest in its welfare. As a member 
of the Library Committee he was largely instru- 
mental in bringing about the erection of the pres- 
ent magnificent structure for housing the Con- 
gressional library. But it was on the floor of the 
House that he shone resplendent. Here he wield- 
ed a free lance. By the splendor of his equipment, 
by his breadth and depth of knowledge of what- 
ever subject came before the House, he was a con- 
stant wonder to his associates. When had he 
gathered such resources, and where had he stored 
them with such method as never to be at a loss 
whence to draw" them? No orator in Congress, 
when he rose, more quickly hushed his audience. 
The confusion at once ceased, members gathered 
around him the better to hear his words, and the 
galleries listened intently to catch each syllable. 
They watched, generally not in vain, for the sal- 
lies and flashes of wit, with which his speech was 
illumined. But 'these were merely accessories, 
side lights, as it were. He spoke ably on every 
question of national interest that came before 
Congress in his day. Many of his speeches, aside 
from their other merits, were gems of literature. 
He was an untiring worker. He was not con- 
tent to deal with the surface of things, but must 
needs go to the very bottom. He knew no idle 
moments. In the arrangement of his papers and 
in the outline of his work he was method itself. 
He learned it, he said, from the same source from 




FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF S. S. COX AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 157 

which he imbibed his political economy, from 
Francis Wayland, his president at Brown. 

His oratory was as polished as the Damascus 
blade. History, mythology, science, philosophy, 
literature, sacred and secular, were resources ever 
at hand from which to illustrate or adorn. He 
was a great student of the Bible, and few men in 
public life showed an equal familiarity with its 
pages. For religion he had naught but respect, 
and never was heard to indulge a sneer at things 
sacred. He was true to his religious training. 

Of his vast number of "set" speeches, on about 
every important subject before CongTess in his 
long career, none excelled in beauty of diction his 
obituary addresses. 

"These efforts," well said a contemporary publi- 
cation, "full of delicacy, seriousness, appreciation, 
grandeur of thought, and the poetry of pathos, 
show bow close the fountain of tears lies to the 
fountain of laughter in the mysterious cham- 
bers of the heart. The man who laughs most eas- 
ily is almost always the one who weeps most eas- 
ily and feelingly. The power to perceive what is 
incongruous and comical in thought and act, and 
touch the chords of humor, is akin to that other 
power which sees and feels the grandeur of duty, 
the heroism of action, and the solemnities of fate. 
If Mr. Cox is capable of the former, he is a recog- 
nized master of the latter." 

Sir Edwin Arnold, in an interview in London 
with an American newspaper correspondent, after 
his return from a visit to the United States, re- 
ferred to Mr. Cox as "a statesman whose name 
should be sacred to the heart of everv true Ameri- 



158 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

can — one who has done so much for his country- 
men." 

Gen. W. T. Sherman, in a conversation Avith a 
friend a few clays before his death, regarding the 
statue, which it was then proposed to erect to the 
memory of Mr. Cox, in which he manifested a 
warm interest, on being told where it was likely to 
be placed, made this comment: "But I should 
think you boys would try and secure a site in the 
Central Park for the statue, and as near to that of 
Daniel Webster as possible — in that circle oppo- 
site; then you would have here two great common- 
ers together, the one representing the Senate, and 
the other representing the House of Representa- 
tives." 

There was ever a warm place in his heart for 
his Alma Mater, Brown University. Whatever 
success in life he attained he attributed in no small 
degree to the training he there received. On its 
part the University was proud of the honors 
heaped upon its brilliant son. Beside the degrees 
of Bachelors of Arts, in course, in 1846, and Mas- 
ter of Arts in 1849, Brown Universitj^ in 1885 con- 
ferred upon Mr. Cox the degree of Doctor of Laws, 



CHAPTER XX. 



MR. COX AND THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION. 

In the exciting scenes that led up to the framing 
of the Electoral Commission bill, in the winter of 
1876-7, and its adoption by Congress, Mr. Cox 
maintained rather a passive than an active role. 
With a majority of his party he accepted the pro- 
posed scheme for the solution of the ugly prob- 
lem with which the country was confronted, but 
at no time was sanguine as to its outcome. He 
voted for the bill, but did not share in the enthu- 
siasm over it indulged in by the majority of his 
party. His relations to the measure were forcibly 
stated in a speech made on the Commission's deci- 
sion of the Louisiana contest, Febiniary 19, 1877, 
when no longer a doubt was felt anywhere as to 
the final outcome. "Mr. Speaker,'' said Mr. Cox 
on this occasion, "after many years of active ser- 
vice as a member of this House, recalling all the 
vicissitudes of our politics for twenty years, I can- 
not feel responsible to-day that after the verdict of 
the American people it should prove a fruitless 
verdict. In 18G4, on the 16th of May, I presented 
a resolution to this House, which passed. It re- 
lated to the regularity and authenticity of the 
returns of electoral votes and for a law to pi'ovide 
for a jurisdiction as well as the course of pro- 



160 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

ceeding in case of a 'real controversy.' The Judi- 
ciary Oomimttee took no action at thiat time. 
Allow me to quote the resolution. It is a com- 
pend of the situation : 

'Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee be 
directed to take into consideration the propriety 
of reporting a bill providing for the decision of 
any question which may arise as to the regularity 
and authenticity of the returns of the electoral 
vote for President and Vice President of the 
United States, or the right of the persons who 
gave the votes or the manner in which they ought 
to be counted; and that such law provide for the 
jurisdiction, as well as the course of proceeding, 
in a case of real controversy.' " 

Had the action contemplated been taken, and 
the legislation proposed been engrafted upon the 
Federal Statutes, the crisis of 1876-7, in which for 
months the country stood upon the brink of civil 
war as the fruit of a disputed election for the 
Presidency, might have been averted. "Peril," 
added Mr. Cox, after quoting his resolution of 
1864, "gives the lessons of years in a day." The 
speech which was thus prefaced was, he subse- 
quently explained, made for history — the judg- 
ment being foregone. In the course thereof he 
said : 

"Peril gives the lessons of years in a day. 
* * * Whether the steps were wisely or un- 
wisely taken in framing the Electoral bill is not to 
be now considered. That bill is the law. We 
know what it is, what its provisions are. We 
knew and felt that some virtue had gone out of 
this House when we passed it, but we did not 
exactly see where the virtue had alighted. We 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 161 

knew the old privileges of the Commons had de- 
parted, but in the interest of peace we gave a 
reluctant vote for the bill. It was voted for in a 
spirit of confidence and in a moment of peril, and 
under terror of force and revolution, which speaks 
more for the caution than for the pluck of our peo- 
ple. Still it was enacted. We are bound by its 
decisions, but not by its reasons. The faith of 
those who voted for it was strong in the integrity 
and purity of their case; and next in the fidelity 
and independence of the tribunal. We placed our 
faith in the ermine. * * * ^e are graciously 
permitted under this bill to argue after the matter 
is accomplished, and although we vote, and 
although we carry our vote in the House, we are 
'gone.' We gain nothing. We are permitted to 
talk ten minutes after the counting and the conclu- 
sion. It is the old Virgilian line over again about 
Rhadamanthus, judge of hell, — Castigatque audit- 
que dolos — the old rule of hanging a man and try- 
ing him afterward. That is our condition to-day." 

Then caustically reviewing the Commission's 
decision, by a vote of 8 to 7, to refuse to go behind 
the returns — ^treating all such testimony as ali- 
unde — Mr. Cox (we copy from the Congressional 
Record of that day) thus closed as the hammer 
fell: 

"Mr. Cox — With permission of the House I will 
read from Psalms 94, verse 20: Shall the throne of 
iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth 
mischief by a law — 

"Mr. Kelley — I object. (Laughter.) 

"Mr. Southard — I hope the gentlemen on that 
side will listen to those words, that they may have 
time to repent. 



162 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"Several members objected. 

"Mr. Cox — The Bible is aliunde with these gen- 
tlemen, (Great laughter.)" 

Mr. Cox's record was in harmony with this 
speech: he refused to be a party to obstruction 
of the enforcement of the law, believing that, how- 
ever subversive of justice as viewed from his 
standpoint, the result was to be accepted in good 
faith. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



FREE CUBA, 



So long ago as 1859 Mr. Cox flung bodly to the 
breeze the flag of Cuban annexation. President 
Buchanan, in his annual message, had recommend- 
ed an appropriation — 130,000,000 were the figures 
fixed upon — for the purchase of Cuba. In a 
speech in the House on January 18, 1859, Mr. Cox 
took the ground that Cuban annexation was man- 
ifest destin3\ 

"There is" he said, "a logic in history which is as 
inexorable as fate. The disquieting aspect of cis- 
Atlantic politics signifies the consummation of 
territorial changes on this continent, long pre- 
dicted, long delayed, but as certain as the logic of 
histoiy! * * * The largest expression of this 
law of annexation is: That no nation has the right 
to hold soil, virgin and rich, yet unproducing; no 
nation has the right to hold great isthmian high- 
ways, or great defences, on this continent without 
the desire, will, or power to use them. They ought, 
and must, inure to the advancement of our com- 
merce. They must become confiscate to the de- 
crees of Providence. 

"Had the Thirty-fourth Congress aided President 
Pierce in the Black Warrior matter, we should 
now have representatives from Cuba on this floor. 



164 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

As to Cuba the reasons for its acquisition are well 
understood by the country. Its geographical po- 
sition giyes to the nation which holds it, unless 
that nation be very weak, a coign of vantage as to 
which self-preservation forbids us to be indiffer- 
ent. While the island is of little use to Spain, save 
as a source of revenue, it is to us of incalculable 
advantage. 

"Our unsettled claims, and many other difficul- 
ties, growing out of our relations to Spain, demand 
settlement, but receive none. How long shall Ave 
continue in this condition? During the pleasure of 
Spain? Is there no redress? Is our every attempt 
to be construed into usurpation? What impedi- 
ments have we to meet? There is one which has, 
since Mr. Adam's time, proved insurmountable — 
Spanish pride. 

"It is well said by an old poet that 
"Spain gives in pride, which Spain, of all the 

earth, 
May freely give, nor fear herself a dearth." 

"Since then there has been no curtailment of 
that pride. True, Spain has now little to be proud 
of but her recollections. Poor, sensitive, corrupt, 
she holds to the punctilio of dignity without its 
substantial energy. If Spain will not sell Cuba to 
us, we must insist upon her changing its policy. 
We have tried in vain by diplomacy to unloosen 
these shackles (on commerce). * * * Nothing 
but the sword can cut them off. Such a system in 
this era of commercial freedom is a shame to civil- 
ization, and if international law were rightly writ- 
ten, it would itself be a cause of honorable war! 
* * * Call it by what name you will, I am 
ready to answer the call of the President, if for 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 165 

nothing else, for the benefit of the |250,000,000 of 
yearly trade which must pass under the range of 
Cuban cannon. 

"I am ready to vote for the bill looking to the 
purchase of Cuba. In case of our failure to pur- 
chase by honorable negotiation I would favor its 
seizure in case of foreign war or of a European in- 
tervention. * * * i^e have become a Colos- 
sus on this continent with a strength and stride 
that will and must be heeded. 

"With our domestic policy as to local govern- 
ments established, we can go on and Americanize 
this continent and make it what Providence in- 
tended it should become, by a perpetual growth 
and an unsevered Union — the paragon in history 
for order, harmony, happiness and power!" 

When, taking advantage of our civil war, Napo- 
leon, Emperor of France, was seeking to erect a 
throne in Mexico and seat Maximilian thereon, Mr. 
Cox, with William Cullen Bryant and others, ad- 
dressed a vast mass meeting at Cooper Institute 
demanding that the Monroe doctrine be enforced 
and the French driven out of Mexico. Some of his 
words r-ead to-day prophetic. "There is," he said, 
"one fact in connection with the Monroe doctrine. 
At present it has only been regarded as a brutum 
fulmen; it has been simply an enunciation, not 
backed up by the power or force of the United 
States. But, sooner or later, the time will come 
when the force of the United States will be invoked 
in support of a doctrine which is, as it were, the 
first letter of the alphabet of the American people. 
That doctrine will ultimately become the only doc- 
trine which can be followed out in the interest of 
the honor of this great country. » * * There is 



166 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

no room on our continent for the establishment of 
monarchies. United in the determination to pre- 
serve this continent to republicanism, we shall be 
able, should the duty of the hour require it, to put 
a million of men in the field ; and with such a force, 
the American people, if the issue be put upon them 
will revindicate their policy." 

Resolutions in favor of recognizing the Cubans 
as belligerents in their struggle to throw off the 
Spanish yoke, introduced by Mr. Cox into the For- 
ty-second Congress, elicited, on January 10, 1872, 
from the New York Evening Mail (Rep.) this em- 
pahtic approval: 

"We thank one of the ablest representatives in 
the House, the Hon. S. S. Cox, for the introduction 
of a series of resolutions in favor of granting bel- 
ligerent rights to the struggling patriots of Cuba. 
It is as plain as noonday that the struggle in which 
one hundred thousand Spanish soldiers have, dur- 
ing the past three years, been engaged, is as much 
of a war as was waged by any one of half a dozen 
South American colonies for independence from 
Spanish tyrann,y." The same paper warned the 
(Grant) Administration and its Representatives in 
Congress that "they must not allow Mr. Cox and 
his party to appear before the country as the espec- 
ial champions of recognition," as "on such an issue 
as this there should be no party lines." Had these 
resolutions been adopted, how different might have 
been the course of American history! But the 
country was not yet ripe for the course proposed. 

It was on the eighth day of January, 1872, that 
Mr, Cox introduced a "joint resolution for the rec- 
ognition of belligerent rights between the kingdom 
of Spain and the so-called Republic of Cuba," as 
follows: 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 167 

"Whereas, the inhabitants of a portion of the 
kingdom of Spain, to wit, the island of Cuba, have 
been waging war against Spain for their indepen- 
dence for a period of now more than three years, 
the existence of which war has been and is 
acknowledged by Spain in sundry public acts and 
documents; and 

"Whereas, During this war Spain has been al- 
lowed to supply her armies and navy from the fac- 
tories, dockyards and arsenals of this country with 
every material requisite for warfare, while the Cu- 
bans, in direct opposition to a fair spirit of neutral- 
ity, have been denied similar advantages, and ves- 
sels freighted with arms and ammunition, destined 
for the Cubans, in accordance with the legal right 
of American citizens to trade in arms with peoples 
and povrers who are at war, and in the exercise of 
what has been declared, both by the Executive and 
a Federal cour-t, to be a legitimate voyage, have, 
in violation of law and equity, been detained and 
subjected to delays by an unfair perversion of jus- 
tice, to the detriment of the interests of American 
citizens; and 

"Whereas, Measures should be adopted to pro- 
tect the rights and interests of American citizens 
engaged in legitimate commerce, and to prevent 
the recurrence of losses which may arise from the 
fact that this Government has not yet acknowl- 
edged the existence of the Republic of Cuba ; and 

"Whereas, The majority of the independent re- 
publics of this hemisphere have recognized the bel- 
ligerency of Cuba, which acts have tacitly been 
admitted by Spain to be not incompatible with the 
spirit of amity toward herself; and 

"Whereas, Spain has herself, by acknowledging 



168 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

the independence of sundry republics on this con- 
tinent, once her colonies, acknowledged the rights 
they had to wage war for their independence as 
Cuba is fighting to-day for hers; and 

"Whereas, by the principles of international law 
an inherent right is vested in the sovereignty of 
every independent nation to declare, when conven- 
ient, the existence of belligerency between any 
other nations, or between the inhabitants of any 
integral portion of any such nation; and 

"Whereas, The rendering assistance to all peo- 
(ilrs struggling in this hemisphere for the rights of 
self-government, by all just means not in contra- 
vention to international law, is a thorougn Amer- 
ican policy, consonant with the principles on which 
our own independence is based ; therefore, 

"Resolved, By the S(enate and House of Kepre- 
sentatives of the United States of America, in Con- 
gress assembled, that it recognizes the existence of 
a state of war between the kingdom of Spain and 
the so-called republic of Cuba, and hereby declares 
both parties to the conflict entitled to all the rights 
conceded to belligerents by international law." 

This resolution was referred to the Foreign Af- 
fairs Committee, in which it slept the sleep that 
knov/s no awakening. Mr. Cox, on the 17th of Feb- 
ruary, by leave of the House, submitted his views 
on the subject, which, he said, were not only "in 
the interest of commerce," but in the line he had 
"carefully marked out as a student of international 
law.' He added: ''Loving the Island of Cuba as a 
rare and Avonderful poi-tion of our star, knowing 
the vicissitudes of its history, feeling the indigna- 
tion as a man, almost, I might say, as a boy, 'who 
is father to the man,' against the hoiTible massacre 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 169 

of American citizens and Cuban students by the 
nation whose flag is a river of blood between banks 
of gold; believing that the welfare of the present 
and rising generation in Cuba depends on the ac- 
tion of this nation, I propose to vindicate by a con- 
cise statement the resolution I offered. It is now 
before the Foreign Affairs Committee, and it sleeps 
there as serenely as if there were no crimes against 
the law of nations committed in Cuba, as if there 
were no outrages against childhood, humanity and 
God, illustrated by the fiends, who, under the 
name of volunteers, rule the inile of Spain to make 
a hell of that paradise of islands." This was pre- 
lude to a forcible argument from the standpoint 
of international law in favor of the proposed recog- 
nition. More than a quaxter of a century later the 
country found itself on his platform. *^Do you ask 
me," asked he at a mass meeting at Steinway Hall 
on the heels of the Virginius outrage, "do you ask 
me for the remedy? I answer, the intervention of 
civilized nations to stop such atrocities." 

Again, in a speech in the House, December 12, 
1879, in favor of strengthening our coast defenses, 
he referred to Spain as a perpetual menace to our 
peace. "It will not do," he said, "to rely on a divine 
Providence altogether for our future defenses. 
Ericssons, with their monitors, are not to be im- 
provised every day against surprises of the Merri- 
macs. The engineers may continue, mechanical 
processes take time, but the nation that has both 
is the victor. * * * if complications, at any 
time possible, should arise between the United 
States and any foreign naval power, great or 
small, what would we do except to submit if we 
were unable to resist an attack on the sea coast or 
the sea? 



170 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"Am I told that there is no danger of a breaking 
out of hostilities, and therefore no need of making 
appropriations for the armament of our forts? The 
time has not yet come for the lion and the lamb to 
lie down together. The ploughshare and pruning 
hook are liable at any time to be converted into 
the bayonet and sword. Our increasing trade and 
growing relations with other countries admonish 
us to be ready at least for defence, if not for ag- 
gression. 

Think of our critical relations with Spain. How 
often in late years have we been on the verge of a 
conflict with Spain! Her present commercial re- 
lations with us are a perpetual menace. Her tar- 
iff so discriminates against this country that it is 
almost robbery. When we consider our exports 
and imports to Cuba alone, the discrimination 
against us is so marked an evidence of selfishness 
and enmity that it is almost a casus belli. * * 
We have been S|pain's best customer. Yet how 
shabbily and meanly we are treated by her. The 
Spanish tariff favors her own vessels to such an 
extent as to deny to us advantages given other 
countries. Do you say that this kind of tariff will 
be ameliorated? Never while we are at the mercy 
of Spain's 800 rifled guns, her six first-class iron- 
clads, and her armored ships; never while the city 
of New York can be placed under these guns and 
exactions made by the hundred millions. Is it not 
therefore, wise and prudent to prepare for the 
armament of our fortifications that we may back 
our negotiations by proper force and make our 
country respected for its position as a power on the 
earth?" But the warning passed unheeded. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



OUR DEBT TO IRELAND. 



Mr. Cox ever refused to recognize any distinc- 
tion between American citizenship that was native 
and the species that was adopted. Consequently 
he insisted, always, that, at whatever cost, the 
government should protect all alike who should 
rightfully claim its protection. He was- a thor- 
ough believer in the doctrine that when a natural- 
ized citizen of the United States returns to his na- 
tive land he is still an American citizen, and as 
such is ever entitled to the aegis of American pro- 
tection. No American statesman did as much to 
advocate, defend and protect, the rights of Ameri- 
can citizens abroad. It was the pressure brought 
on the government by him that opened the doors 
of British prisons and let in the light to the victims 
there confined. 

When in the winter of 1880 Charles Stewart 
Parnell visited the United States, it was a resolu- 
tion offered by S. S. Cox that opened the Hall of 
Representatives to Ireland's eloquent champion, 
and brought that body to lisften to his plea for Ire- 
land, deliverec^ from the speaker's place. His reso- 
lution did more — it requested the participation of 
the House in the ceremonies, "because of the great 
interest which the people of the United States take 



172 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

in the condition of Ireland, with which this coun- 
try is so closely allied by many historic and kin- 
dred ties." 

The incarceration of Capt. Edward O'Meagher 
Condon in a British dungeon received a prompt at- 
tention from Mr. Cox, at the time chairman of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs. For Condon, it 
was claimed, and truthfully, that he was an Amer- 
ican citizen. On the 13th of June, 1878, he report- 
ed from the committee a joint resolution request- 
ing the President to take such action as would se- 
cure Condon a speedy and impartial trial. In a 
forcible speech in support of his resolution, Mr. 
Cox cited the Revised Statutes to prove that the 
law was ample in its provisions for an executive 
demand on the British government, and for inter- 
vention in such a case. The House was so im- 
pressed with his argument that the resolution was 
promptly adopted. The next day it passed the 
Senate and was signed by the President on the 
next. 

In a speech made July 15, 1876, he said:" When 
our nation began its first century it had but a pop- 
ulation of 2,750,000. Its area has been extended 
from 800,000 miles to 3,603,844 square miles. An- 
nexation has quadrupled our area since the Rev- 
olution. But with all our purchases of Florida, 
Louisiana, New Mexico, California and Alaska we 
gained fewer than 150,000 inhabitants, while the 
acquisition of Texas and Oregon merely restored 
to citizenship those who had emigrated from the 
United States. In more senses than one, there- 
fore, should we rely upon immigration to develop 
the vast resources, mineral, agricultural, and man- 
ufacturing, which tend to make a country great 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 173 

and prosperous. What a commentary, therefore^ 
in thi« view is the false platform and narrow policy 
of the anti-naturalization and anti-immigration 
party." 

"It is not a new thing for the American Gov- 
ernment to take an interest in Irish prisoners. 
Every generous heart will recognize the fact that 
Ireland and her destiny cannot be dissociated from 
her warm-hearted sons in this country. From the 
time of Cromwell and his attempt to root out the 
Celtic-Irish with his penalties, down to the present 
time, millions of Irishmen have had their property 
confiscated, their families scattered, and their 
bodies killed to gratify some unreasoning and big- 
oted vengeance on the part of her Anglo-Saxon 
enemies and rulers. But her spirit has never been 
conquered. It is impossible for a true Irishman, 
unless you rend his heart and paralyze his brain, 
not to love Ireland. 

"The people of my district, Mr. Speaker, a large 
portion of whom are descended of those who emi- 
grated thence, would find me derelict in my duty 
did I not sympathize with their sympathy. By 
cable and steamship and by the thousands of let- 
ters and messages of affection, by whole clans and 
counties, they are interweaving the island of Man- 
hattan with the island of Ireland. This sympathy 
is quicker than the sub-ocean lightning. It is the 
instinct of son and daughter for mother and father. 
It has been enlarged, warmed, and fused into a 
heavenly radiance. Again and again, are the 
wrongs of Ireland spoken of most significantly in 
public meetings and at the domestic hearth. 

"The history of Ireland is not alone the history 
of her religious faith, but the history of political 



174 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

independence and civil freedom. Befoi^ the time 
of the Tudors, before the time when the King's 
writ ran beyond the pale about Dublin, down 
through harsh penal laws and ecclesiastical estab- 
lishments, foreign to her best emotions about the 
seen and unseen world, through evictions, land 
laws, and trade exactions, she has been galled 
without cowardly wincing, but galled at times 
into courageous revolt. 

"Our sympathies belong to Ireland, for our revo- 
lution was hers. 

"Ireland, too, had her revolution ; but unsuccess- 
ful revolutions are called rebellions; but did she 
not contend, and does she not, through Isaac 
Butts, O'Connor Power, and others, to-day con- 
tend for the principle of her early day when Grat- 
tan thundered and Emmett died? Did she not 
contend, not alone in her own land, but here, and 
wherever the sword of Erin flashed, for the banner 
above all battle-flags: representation, and no taxa- 
tion without it. Concord, Monmouth, Saratoga, 
Valley Forge, Yorktown, all testify of deeds done 
in liberty's name, but deeds done for man's capac- 
ity for home-rule. Jefferson taught the truth, 
which Irishmen loved to champion, that feudality 
in form or substance was tyranny ; that absentee- 
ism was robbery; that vassalage was cowardice, 
and independence courage; and that the fire and 
smoke of war are simple butchery unless beneath 
there is the pure molten white heat of patriotic 
devotion. Jealous of power, confiding in the peo- 
ple, and instinct with a love of country, he gave 
his theory and conduct to the illustration of that 
heaven-imaged scroll of stars, moving in harmony 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 175 

about the central sun, the type of our stately 
cluster about the Union and its splendid ensign. 

"To Ireland, America is indebted as well for her 
prosperity in a great degree as for her early settle- 
ment. After the English revolution of 1688, when 
the barbarous Orange policy inaugurated by Eng- 
land drove men from their island home, a tide of 
emigration set in toward the American colonies. 
Irish trade and manufactures were destroyed and 
wars and penal laws drove Irishmen across the 
ocean. They filled our colonies with their emi- 
grants. At least a million of the three million 
who inhabited the thirteen colonies at the begin- 
ning of the Kevolution were Irish by birth or de- 
scent. They spread and multiplied in our land 
from the Potomac to the Ohio, from the Saco to the 
Juniata. They enlivened the land with their hu- 
morous spirit, their cheerful industry, and their 
alacrious belligerency. When independence 
came to be our only prospect, the first undaunted 
rebel was John Sullivan, who with his Celtic band 
marched upon the fortress of William and Mary, 
in New Hampshire, and captured it. This was 
the first blow of the Revolution. In May, 1775, 
the O'Briens, six in number, fought the first naval 
battle of the war, and won it. The names of gal- 
lant Irishmen shine like stars all through the murk 
of the Eevolution. To recount them is to recount 
the stories of Monmouth, Saratoga, Bennington, 
Valley Forge, Stony Point, and Yorktown. Why, 
one of the charges against the Irish in England 
was that 16,000 of them fought on the side of 
America. This was one of the pretexts for refus- 
ing redress to the Catholics of Ireland. A steady 
influx of immigration since has filled our confines 



176 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

with 14,000,000 of Celtic blood. The names of 
Barry, Montgomery, Jasper, Warren, Clinton, Rut- 
ledge, Wayne, and Jackson but feebly portray the 
gorgeous galaxy of Irish patriots who gave to 
America their fervor and their fighting, their 
bravery and their blood. 

"Mr. Speaker, it is in this mosaic, made up of all 
races and nations, in which we find our growth, 
happiness, and unity. The streams of thought 
and feeling from the Old World have made na 
something more than a congeries of British colo- 
nies or a unity of selfish States. Our very motto, 
"From many, one," indicates the cause of our 
greatness as well a® of our growth; it speaks of 
our varied vitality fused with united patriotism. 

"It is not possible, Mr. Speaker, to roll back the 
shadow on the dial-plate of time. The sun will 
not stand still at human voice. This immigra- 
tion from the Old World, with its thousand elevat- 
ing and assimilating qualities, will go on. No 
sectarian bitterness or bigoted hate can turn away 
the people of this countiry from the belief in the 
principles of religious freedom fixed and eternized 
down in their organic laws." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE PERSECUTED JEWS. 



Closing a speech on the persecution of the Jews 
in Russia, made in the House May 21, 1880, he paid 
that ancient race this tribute: 

"Whether it shall ever come to pass that this re- 
markable race shall repossess the land of their an- 
cestors; whether the temple shall again arise 
within the walls of Zion; whether the teachings 
of their religion and all the elevated thoughts of 
their poets, prophets and priests shall be sung 
even 'within thy gates, O Jerusalem,' one thing is 
to be conceded, that in America, under our free 
institutions, they are permitted, unmolested, to 
worship the Jehovah of their fathers! Here at 
least they have a highway out of Egypt into the 
promised land! Wherever may be their local hab- 
itation, from the summit of Mount Sinai still ra- 
diates the eternal lesson cut in stone; from the 
calcined soil and the sacred mountains of Judea 
goes forth an effluence to civilize, cheer and bless. 

"No one can be so darkened in his understanding 
as not to see the wonderful power of that little 
land through which the Jordan flows, with a pop- 
ulation not larger than one of our own countries, 
which for two thousand years and more has held 
the world in thrall by its teachings and by its wor- 



178 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

ship of the invisible Jehovah. Its people have car- 
ried the ark of their covenant into many lands and 
climes; and though bigotry may still be pleased to 
think that their dispersion as a people is a curse, 
still from their migrations humanity has been 
beautified, justice purified, and liberty glorified! 
Out of their rigid and austere code there springs 
and flows forever an influence as gentle as the 
dews that fell upon Hermon and as potential as 
the quaking of Sinai, out of whose throes came 
the moral law of mankind!" 

A resolution having been introduced into the 
House which looked like an apology to Chancellor 
Bismarck for resolutions previously passed by the 
House, expressing sympathy for the death of Ed- 
ward Lasker, a member of the German Reichstag, 
Mr. Cox opposed the implied apology with fiery elo- 
quence. Incidentally his speech was a splendid 
tribute to the Jewish race. Among other things 
he said: 

"This manly man, Herr Lasker, was a type of a 
great class. He was a friend of labor. He was 
its interpreter and prophet, its friend and adviser 
in a realm where the word of the Kaiser was law, 
and liberty was suppressed by penalty and force. 
He was the representative of democracy in the 
larger sense of that term. He was an orator and a 
splendid type of the great race that has come-down 
to us from the 'chosen people,' in earlier times. 
The tribute paid to his memoiy was also a tribute 
to the race from which he sprung — a race whose 
history runs back into the dawn of time. To that 
race we owe our entire system of ethics and the 
preservation of the foundations of religion. Amid 
centuries of glorious nationality and through long 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 179 

ages of intolerance and most cruel persecution, 
Hebrew virtue, pride, and courage remain uutar- 
nished by the hand of time. In everything that 
broadens civilization, Hebrew genius, intellect, re- 
search, and learning stand forth pre-eminent. 

"What a race has been stricken by the death of 
this distinguished German and Hebrew! I say it 
is only a part of the history of persecutions which 
in this day of the nineteenth century are a humil- 
iation and not to be tolerated in this country. In 
the Middle Ages one nation alone sacrificed six 
hundred thousand Jews. They were the flower 
of science, the devotees of literature, skilled 
in art, and enthusiastic in poetry. They 
were men of industry, enterprise, and commerce — 
honest, social and hospitable. I would not suffer 
for a moment that we should give even a possible 
shadow of excuse for bowing befoi^ the terrible 
specter of persecution. 

"Twice have I called the attention of the House 
to the persecutions of the Jews in Russia. We have 
become used to the persecutions in that country. 
It is a part of its barbarism. But it is only within 
the past few years that the same ruthless system 
of persecution has obtained in Germany. The 
time of Hebraic liberty will come, and I trust 
soon, as it has come in this and some countries in 
Europe, notably in Spain, which has invited the 
Hebrew exiles of Germany to her shores. To the 
Hebrew race it is proclaimed by God himself in 
Holy Writ: 'I will shake all the nations, and the 
desire of all the nations shall come, and I will fill 
this house with glory, saith Jehovah the Lord of 
Hosts.' 



180 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"It becomes us especially who hav^ offered an 
asylum to these stricken people, and in view of 
their remarkable attainments in all that civilizes 
and blesses, that the indirect insult to their race, 
through one of their distinguished sons, shall re- 
ceive no mitigation by tenders of semi-sympathy 
to the organ of autocratic power, even where that 
power is concealed in the silken glove of an ac- 
complished statesman." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



CHAMPION OF AMERICAN COMMERCE. 



The upbuilding of American commerce was ever 
a pet object with Mr. Cox. To this end he con- 
stantly advocated every measure before Congress 
which promised to remove the burdens imposed 
on American merchant marine, and to encourage 
the American foreign- carrying trade. One of his 
many speeches on this subject was delivered in the 
House April 26, 1884. "Free Ships and P'ree Ma- 
terials" was its watchword. In the course of that 
speech he said: 

"When the causes of our commercial ruin have 
been brought home to the understanding of our 
toilers in the ship-yards and the merchants in their 
counting rooms, the system of prohibition is 
doomed. Is American industry to be forever like 
an imaginary cripple, afraid to lay aside its 
crutches though he be able to walk better without 
them? Repeal our restrictive laws and five years 
will not roll away before we will, by free labor, 
hold our own market and contend with the for- 
eigner successfully in the markets of the world. 

"In my despair at the dilatory, not to say un- 
wise legislation here for the revival of our naviga- 
tion, I turn as a believer in our material advance- 
ment to the Baconic inductions of physics and the 



183 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

probable results of our utilitarian methods of re- 
search. Invention is not a newborn muse which 
descants upon a new order to usher in a new era; 
for the ancients reckoned the inyentor as among 
the heroes and demi-gods along with the founders 
of empire. What may not come in the form of ma- 
terial development to relieve us and bring back our 
olden and golden glory upon the sea! Our age is 
one of natural forces with wondrous practical ap- 
plications. These forces, including the vapor of 
water and the spark of electricity along with other 
elements not yet known, are the subtle agents har- 
nessed by man, powers we know not what or 
whence, but powers in league w ith the reason and 
genius of man, to do his work on land and ocean 
for the amelioration and civilization of our kind. 
By these forces we are day by day bringing nations 
closer and closer to each other. Oceans no longer 
divide. That mysterious realm is no longer an 
abyss. It is bridged. The elements harmonize 
and unite. Where once there was a flaming 
sword, now there are well known paths over the 
bosom of the deep, traced by the genius of Maury 
and traveled by the steamer which mates the ocean 
in its wildest saturnalia. This House, elected on 
principles of reciprocity and liberality, may in har- 
mony with material advancement, at least do what 
was done by the last Kepublican House, which, 
professing no special creed on these topics, and al- 
though it repented of its generous vote the next 
day and reversed its action, did adopt the two 
propositions I have here urged — one for free ma- 
terials, to help the ship-builder, and the other for 
free ships, to help the ship owner. I trust that 
these may clasp hands and go as one and together. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 183 

for the enhancement of our mercantile marine and 
for the glory of our starry flag." (Applause.) 

One of his last efforts, and for which the City 
of New York thanked him, was the passing of a 
law effectually preserving New York harbor and 
its tributaries from destruction. Although he 
abhorred war and regarded it as the resort of bar- 
barism, Mr. Cox was not unmindful of the neces- 
sity of defense and the needs of national honor, as 
'his speech in the Forty-Eighth Congress as chair- 
man on naval affairs will show. In his speech, 
which was delivered on June 30, 1884, he illus- 
trates in a remarkable degree the conscientious 
legislative labor and foresight of the man. 

"For my part," said he, "I would prefer to ex- 
pend four millions of dollars for one first-class 
war vessel that would be able to overhaul the 
Oregon or Alaska, and merchant steamers of that 
type when armed as cruisers, than have a dozen 
such cruisers as the Chicago, Boston, Atlanta or 
Dolphin for the same money. I have no confidence 
in the slow speed policy of the Advisory Board in 
this age of high speed and scientific advancements. 
The steel cruisers which we are now building are 
already behind the requirements of the day. I risk 
nothing in saying this when I can point to such 
British merchant steamers as the Oregon and 
Alaska. These are types of all large British mer- 
chant steamers that are hereafter to be built. None 
are to be inferior to these. Most of those yet to be 
built will surpass them. We who have no techni- 
cal naval knowledge can easily see that our steel 
cruisers, the Chicago and the others, are a mistake. 
They are not capable of effective cruising service 
in war time." 



184 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

Has not the war with Spain, in showing the 
superiority of fast-atlling cruisers abundantly 
demonstrated the wisdom of the policy Mr. Cox 
advocated many years ago? 



CHAPTER XXV. 



THE "letter carriers' FRIEND." 



Mr. Cox was the earliest and most steadfast of 
champions of the interests of the employes in the 
postal service, especially the Letter Carriers, and 
every important measure standing on the statute 
books for their benefit w^as placed there through 
his efforts. Chief among these measures were 
those affecting the Letter Carriers. The first, 
gives the Letter Carriers an annual vaca- 
tion of fifteen days without loss of pay — au- 
thorizing the employment meanwhile of substi- 
tutes. The second gives them a fixed salary, which 
the Postmaster General himself is unable to disturb. 
The third limits a day's work to eight hours, and 
provides that for any additional hour or hours the 
carrier may be employed, he shall "be paid extra 
for the same in proportion to the salary now fixed 
by law." The gratitude of this class of public 
servants to Mr. Cox was manifest on many notable 
occasions during his life, and is no less manifest 
now that he wots not of it. 

When Mr. Cox took up in Congress the cause of 
the Letter Carriers, his first efforts were directed 
to the securing of legislation which should give 
them stated salaries. He saw that the compensa- 
tion of a Letter Carrier was governed largely, if 



186 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

not altogether, by the caprice of the Postmaster 
under whom he was serving. A lump sum was 
given a Postmaster to be distributed among his 
employes, according to his own sweet will and 
pleasure. Naturally, he had his favorites, and nat- 
urally, too, these were taken better care of than 
those on whom he smiled not. 

It was to preclude all favoritism, to put every 
Letter Carrier beyond the power of suffering from 
this caprice of his employer, and to equalize as 
well as fix salaries, that Mr. Cox entered upon an 
undertaking beset by many obstacles, and which 
took years to fully accomplish. 

More or less the carrier was a foot ball of poli- 
tics. Sometimes he was sent for by the party boss 
and threatened with a reduction of pay if he hesi- 
tated to grind the ax of that boss. He knew not, 
at the beginning of a campaign what would be his 
fate at its close. It was emancipation from this 
state of servitude that Mr. Cox sought and ob- 
tained for the letter carriers. 

In an address before the Letter Carriers of Bos- 
ton and the workmen at the navy yard, in historic 
Faneuil Hall, Mr. Cox briefly referred to his labors 
in Congress in behalf of the Letter Carriers. "I 
tender my acknowledgments," said he, "to the Let- 
ter Carriers of Boston for recognizing my humble 
efforts, through many years, to raise their wages 
to an adequate sum. At last, on February 21, 
1879, my bill passed both houses. It was signed. 
It was left unexecuted under various pretenses. 
'Oh !' it was said, 'the carriers are not yet classified 
and would not be until July 1.' A mere show and 
not at all creditable to any concerned. The com- 
mittees in both houses endeavored on that their 




LITTLE ETHEL VAN ZANT SULLIVAN. 
(Grandniece of S. S. Cox, who unveiled Letter Carriers' Statue.) 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 187 

pretext to cut down the salaries of that bill below 
the sums allowed, and to begin the lower pay on 
the first of July. When the bill went to the Sen- 
ate it was not only thus curtailed but was loaded 
down with riders as to swamp lands, Osage inter- 
est money, railroad mail transportation pay, and 
what not. I had to fight these in detail. Some 
were throttled, some not, to save the bill. Hap- 
pily the Carriers have their tasks requited with a 
larger salary." 

Another measure in the interests of the Letter 
Carriers, obtained through Mr. Cox's efforts, is 
known as the "Carriers' Vacation Law." Under 
its provisions every letter carrier in the United 
States is entitled to an annual vacation of fifteen 
days, with full pay during that time, his duties, 
meanwhile, performed by a substitute, who is also 
paid by the government. Before the passage of 
this act a vacation to a letter carrier came only 
through the grace of his Postmaster. It comes to 
him now through the law of the land, and no 
thanks to either Postmaster or Postmaster Gen- 
eral. 

In recognition of this important service 
at a special meeting of the le^tter carriers 
of the branches of the New York postoffice held on 
July 20, 1884, the following preamble and resolu- 
tions were unanimously adopted: 

"The letter carriers of the branches of the New 
York Postoffice feel deeply indebted to Honorable 
Samuel S. Cox for the valuable service he has ren- 
dered them and the letter carriers generally in the 
United States by his advocacy before the United 
States Congress of just and proper legislation in 
their behalf. 



188 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"And whereas they desire to place on record 
some suitable expression of their warm esteem for 
him personally and their very high appreciation of 
the valuable services rendered them, therefore be 
it 

"Resolved, That the most earnest thanks of the 
letter carriers of the branches of the New York 
Postoffice be and are hereby unanimously tendered 
to the Hon. Samuel S. Cox for his efficient and inde- 
fatigable efforts to secure by act of Congress to 
the letter carriers a much needed annual vacation 
of two weeks. 

"Resolved, That we recognize in the Hon. S. S. 
Cox, not only a true friend, but an eminent states- 
man and legislator whose official power has been 
wisely exercised for the best interests of the public 
service. 

"Resolved, That this preamble and resolutions 
be suitably engrossed, framed and presented to the 
Honorable Samuel S. Cox as an expression of our 
warm personal esteem and of our united wishes 
that he may long continue to do honor as an able 
and upright public servant." 

The presentation of an elaborately engrossed 
copy of these resolutions to Mr. Cox at his resi- 
dence by the committee was accompanied with the 
further i)resentation of a magnificent gold watch, 
w^hich was prized by him to the day of his death as 
one of his choicest possessions. 

This was followed, after Mr. Cox^s return to 
Congress succeeding his mission in Turkey, by the 
eight hour law being applied to Letter Carriers. 
Mr. Cox's part in passing these three measures of 
inestimable value to the Letter Carriers, was thus 
summed up by one of their numbers, George H. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 189 

Kewson, in a speech presenting a statue of the 
'Letter Carriers' Friend" to the City of New York, 
July 4, 1891. "When," said Mr. Newson, "Mr. 
Cox understood that the Letter Carriers were re- 
ceiving less compensation than the driver of a 
horse car and the laborers on the street, he did not 
believe that the qualifications on the one side and 
the compensation on the other were evenly bal- 
anced. He saw a duty, and when Congress met, 
he introduced a bill to increase the carriers' sal- 
aries. We well remember how patiently, hope- 
fully, and yet fearfully, we waited and watched for 
the result. We felt that our cause was in the 
hands of a good friend, and would not suffer for 
the want of devotion on his part. An illustration 
of his earnestness might be told here. The bill 
had passed the house and was pending in the Sen- 
ate. The House was in continued session, it being 
the last few days of Congress. Mr. Cox thought 
his work was done, and returned home to New 
York for a much needed rest. He left word with 
the carriers' representative that if the bill was 
amended in the Senate, he would be on the confer- 
ence committee, and that if he was needed he 
should be sent for, and he would return. One 
night at about eleven o'clock we received a dis- 
patch from Washing-ton stating that Mr. Cox 
would be needed next morning. A messenger 
hurried to Mr. Cox's residence, found that he had 
retired; but when he was made acquainted with 
the nature of the message, he immediately arose, 
and although the train to Washington left Jersey 
City at 12:15 midnight, Mr. Cox was on that train, 
and arrived at the Capitol at 8 o'clock next morn- 
ing, and before the sun went down that day, the 



190 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

salary bill had become a law as far as the Senate 
and House were concerned. 

"It had been a custom of the Postmaster of New 
York to grant a ten days' leave of absence to all 
carriers in the New York postoflftce. He was not 
required to do so by law, nor was the same privi- 
lege granted to the carriers of any other city. For 
some reason or other, a few years after the pass- 
sage of the salary bill, the department at Wash- 
ington instructed the Postmaster at New York to 
discontinue these vacations. When Mr. Cox be- 
came aware of that fact, he presented and had 
passed in both houses, before the next vacation 
season came around, a bill giving all of the car- 
riers of the United States a fifteen days' leave of 
absence, with pay, and provided some one to do 
each carrier's work — so that, instead of the carrier 
rpreiving the vacation as a compliment, he re- 
ceived it as a matter of right." 

Eespecting the history of the act constituting 
eight hours a days' work for a carrier, and allow- 
ing him pro rata pay for all overtime, Mr. Newson 
said: "When the fight began, if we may call it a 
fight, Mr. Cox was in Turkey, representing the 
government. We felt that our leader was gone, 
and that we must go into the fight without him. 
We had already waited through one session of 
Congress without any action, and were willing to 
wait two, three, or four, whatever the case might 
be, or until we succeeded, when we received word 
that Mr. Cox was to return home again. We felt 
that with his presence we should surely win. We 
gave him a royal reception when he returned home 
and a few weeks after that he returned to Con- 
gress, and immediately espoused our cause. That 
we won you know full well." 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 191 

Not at once, however, were the fruits of the vic- 
tory gathered. The Postofiflce Department, which 
had been unable to defeat the passage of the law, 
now sought means to nullify it. The Department 
set up the claim that eight hours a day meant fifty- 
six hours a week — that if a carrier was not em- 
ployed beyond this number of hours per week there 
was no overtime. If not employed at all Sunday, 
the fifty-six hours might be divided through the 
other six days — an average of over nine hours a 
day — according to the postmaster's sweet will. In 
this contention, strange to say, the Postoffice De- 
partment was sustained by its legal adviser, the 
Assistant Attorney General for that department. 
The eight-hour law, drafted by Mr. Cox, was placed 
on the statute book May 24, 1888. For nearly three 
months the new law was ignored altogether. In 
August, in pursuance of a policy of general exten- 
sion of the free delivery service, the Department, 
in place of putting on new carriers, undertook to 
increase the working hours of the carriers already 
employed beyond the legal eight. Overtime began 
then and there. The letter carriers, as usual when 
in perplexity, appealed to Mr. Cox. Their com- 
mitteee called his attention to what had been rep- 
resented to them as a flaw in the law and to the 
construction put upon it by the Department. Mr. 
Oox proimptly replied that in his judgment the act 
was complete — that its language fully bore out his 
intent in framing it, which was that each day was 
to be considered by itself, and was not to be 
bunched with half a dozen others. And he advised 
them to fight it out on that line. 

For every hour of overtime on any day, regard- 



192 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

less of any other, Mr. Oox maintained that the Gov- 
ernment must pay pro rata. 

Still, year after year the overtime went on under 
the department's construction of the law. Finally, 
three years after Mr. Cox's death, came the vindi- 
cation of the law and its author. A test case, in- 
volving all the points at issue was made up, under 
Postmaster General Wanamaker, and submitted 
to the Court of Claims. That court decided in 
favor of the letter carriers. Postmaster General 
Wanamak^ appealed the case to the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and the highest tri- 
bunal in the land affirmed the decision of the Court 
of Claims. That settled it for all time. What Mr. 
Cox intended the law should be, such it was. Mr. 
Cox had not been drafting laws thirty years for 
nothing. 

What was the upshot? The letter carriers were 
bidden file their claims for overtime during the 
more than four years the department had, under 
bad advice, misconstrued a perfectly plain enact- 
ment. The claims were filed, established by legal 
proof, and for their payment the Government had, 
up to September, 1898, appropriated nearly |3,- 
250,000. 

The legal end of the carriers' claims for overtime 
was handled by the Washing-ton attorneys, the 
brothers George A. and William B. King. In the 
face of many discouragements these attorneys 
bravely fought the case from its inception in the 
Court of Claims to its triumphant conclusion in the 
Supreme Court of the United States. And they 
have since successfully prosecuted the claims for 
overtime of many hundreds of carriers throughout 
the United States. It is no small tribute to Mr. 




STATUE OF S. S. COX, ASTOR PLACE, NEW YORK. 
(Erected by the Letter Carriers). 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 193 

Cox's legal astuteness that the line on which they 
fought and won in the highest court of the land 
was precisely that laid down by the author of the 
law himself, without amendment or qualification. 
The Supreme Court, in a decision delivered by 
Mr. Justice Samuel Blatchford, March 13, 1893, 
held in substance as follows: 

1. That a carrier is entitled to count all work 
performed by him under proper authority, whether 
on the sti'eet in delivering or collecting uiails, in 
making up mail in the postofflce for delivery, or in 
doing other postal service under direction of the 
postmaster. 

2. That a carrier is entitled to extra pay for any 
time which he works in excess of eight hours upon 
any one day, even though he may work less than 
eight hours on some other day . 

Said Justice Blatchford: 

"The Court of Claims, in its opinion, arrived at 
the following conclusions: (1) That the letter car- 
riers w^ere entitled to recover, not only for all work 
done by them on the street in delivering and col- 
lecting mail matter, but also for all work done in 
the postoffice, in receiving and arranging the let- 
ters of their routes. (2) That, as to the distribution 
of mail matter for the boxes and general delivery, 
during the times intervening between one trip and 
another in the same day, the regulations of the De- 
partment could properly be construed as permit- 
ting such services; and (3) that, as to the services 
of the same character rendered after the termina- 
tion of the last trip for the day of the carrier in 
delivering and collecting mail matter, they were 
services fairly within the power of the postmaster 
to prescribe. 



194 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"We are of opinion that, in respect of all such 
serviceSjthe letter carrier, if employed therein a 
greater number of hours than eight per day, was 
entitled to be paid extra. To hold otherwise 
would be to say that the carrier was employed con- 
trary to the regulations of the Department, when 
it clearly appears that he was employed in accord- 
ance with such regulations. The statute mani- 
festly was one for the benefit of the letter carriers 
and it does not lie in the mouth of the Government 
to contend that the employment in question was 
not extra service, and to be paid for as such, Avhen 
it appears that the United States, in accordance 
with the regulations of the Postoffice Department, 
actually employed the letter carriers the extra 
number of hours per day, and it is not found that 
they were so employed as clerks. The postmaster 
was the agent of the United States to direct the 
employment, and if the letter carriers had not 
obeyed the orders of the postmaster they could 
have been dismissed. They did not lose their legal 
rights under the statute by obeying such orders. 

"Judgment affirmed." 

Mr. Cox did not live to witness the crowning tri- 
umph of his labors in behalf of the letter carriers, 
but the gratitude of the men he so zealously and 
effectually served is undying. 

It is worthy of note that the last public ap- 
pearance of Mr. Cox was at a festival held by the 
Letter Carriers, when he received a testimonal 
from their hands and made his last public speech. 
The passage of the eight-hour bill was celebrated 
with great enthusiasm by the Letter Carriers of 
the United States in the Academy of Music, New 
York, on the Fourth of July following. At this 







OFFICERS OP NATIONAL LETTER CARRIERS' ASSOCIATION, 1S98-9. 



E. J. Cantwell, Sec'3', 

Washington, D. C 

Jas. Arkison, Ch'n Leg. Com., 

Fall River, Mas.s. 

J. F. McElroy, Ch'n Ex. Bd., 

Bridgeport, Conn. 

A. K. Young, Ex. Bd., 

Cincinnati, O. 



Conrad Trieber, Vice-Pres., 

San Francisco, Cal. 

John N. Parsons, Pres., 

New York City. 

W. J. Knott, Ex. Bd., 

Newark, N. J. 



M. J. Conners, Treasurer, 

Chicago, 111. 

Chas. R. Raedel, Ch'n Civ. Ser., 

Canton, O. 

Francis J. Hourke, Ex. Board, 

Syracuse, N. Y. 

Chris Lo'ugheed, Sec. Ex. Bd., 

Detroit, Mich. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 195 

meeting the following preamble and resolutions 
were unanimously adopted: 

"Whereas, the Letter Carriers of the United 
States do feel deeply indebted to Hon. Samuel S. 
Cox for the service so generously rendered by him 
to secure the passage of the measure limiting the 
hours of duty of Letter Carriers to eight per diem, 
and 

"Whereas, our efforts would have been futile 
were it not for the encouragement given and labor 
expended in his own sphere and field; and 

"Whereas, we recognize in Hon. Samuel S. Cox 
a true friend to the cause of labor and a gentleman 
who, although employed in the more important 
questions of State and Nation, saw the justice of 
our cause and enlisted in it for justice's sake; 
therefore be it 

"Resolved, That the thanks of the Letter Car- 
riers of the United States are due, and the same 
are hereby extended to Hon. Samuel S. Cox for his 
unselfish devotion to our cause and the many sac- 
rifices made by him in our behalf, the result of 
which has been to make our labor less a task and 
more a pleasure. 

"Resolved, That a copy be engrossed and pre- 
sented to the Hon. Samuel S. Cox of New York." 

When Mr. Cox died, by none was he mourned 
more sincerely than by the Letter Carriers of the 
United States. Resolutions expressive of their 
sorrow were adopted by the carriers of all the prin- 
cipal cities of the United States. The letter car- 
riers of Philadelphia resolved that with loving 
hearts in grateful remembrance, we heartily pay 
tribute to his sterling w^orth as our champion, 
friend and protector. He was universally be- 



196 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

loved, respected and admired, ever ready to give 
his time and efforts in our behalf. "Where," they 
asked, "will we look for another such true friend? 
Everywhere, only to be disappointed. With one 
accord we place upon record this slight token of 
our loving regard and devotion for our dear friend 
— the incoiTuptible statesman who has passed 
away, leaving an unstained career as a fitting 
memorial of a life well spent." 

The branch at Jacksonville, Fla., resolved "that 
in the death of Samuel S. Cox the nation has lost 
a loved and honored statesman, humanity a friend, 
Christianity a devout follower, and the Letter Car- 
riers of the United States a zealous champion, sup- 
porter, benefactor and advocate. That, excelling 
in all the walks of life, we have known him best as 
the honest statesman and the friend of the em- 
ployes of the nation." 

The San Francisco carriers unanimously passed 
this resolution: "That as employes of the free- 
delivery system of the United States postal service 
we shall ever hold in grateful remembrance the 
painstaking research, laborious compilations, elo- 
quent pleadings for which on so many occasions 
during his long and honorable career in the halls 
of Congress Mr. Cox so ably assisted in securing 
for ourselves and our fellow employes of the ser 
vice mentioned the just provisions which fx'om 
time to time have been accorded to us by Congres- 
sional enactments." Besides these, the Golden 
Gate Carriers addressed a personal letter to the 
widow showing their appreciation of his "tireless 
advocacy" of their rights in Congress, and their 
sorrow at the loss of their "most zealous friend 
and advocate." 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX. 197 

Memphis, Tennesee, joined in the procession of 
mourners, declaring in the resolutions of its Let- 
ter Carriers that "the council of the nation loses 
one of its brightest lights, America one of her nob- 
lest sons and grandest statesmen, and the laborers, 
and especially the Letter Carriers, a friend of in- 
estimable worth," and that the letter carriers of 
Memphis "in mourning the loss of a friend so great 
and true do share in the bereavement of the nation 
and his family." 

The Boston carriers put on record their deep sor- 
row at "the loss of one who had endeared himself 
to us by his kind, able, and willing assistance at 
all times," and one who "was ever the champion 
of our cause." Hardly a branch of the National 
Letter Carriers Association was too small or too 
remote to join in the acclaim of testimony to the 
services of the "Letter Carriers Friend." The an- 
nual decoration of his grave in Greenwood by 
these grateful servants of the public, attests that 
their gratitude is not evanescent or merely spas- 
modic, but is as enduring as the memory of his 
services in their behalf. 

The crowning proof of the grateful apprecia- 
tion of the Letter Carriers of the United States, 
towards their benefactor, stands in Astor Place, 
in the midst of the busy life of the metropolis. It 
is a bronze statue. The figure is of heroic propor- 
tions, and represents Mr. Cox in the attitude of 
addressing the House. His right hand is extend- 
ed, while his left is at his side. The statue, eight 
feet high, rests on a pedestal of polished granite, 
twelve feet high. It cost $10,000, every dollar of 
which was the voluntary contribution of the Let- 
ter Carriers of the United States. The pedestal 
bears this inscription : 



198 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

'^Samuel Sullivan Cox, 

The Letter Carriers' Friend. 

Erected in grateful and loving memory of his ser 

vices in Congress by the Letter Carriers of 

New York, his home, and of the United 

States, his country, July 4th, 1891." 

The movement for the erection of a suitable 
monument to testify to the gratitude of the Letter 
Carriers of the United States for Mr. Cox was 
started the day following his death. A special 
meeting of the New York Letter Carriers' associa- 
tion held September 11, 1889, after a preamble de- 
claring that "the Letter Carriers of the United 
States feel that they have lost a friend who de- 
voted his greatest efforts in their interest and wel- 
fare and one who we feel will never be replaced," 
adopted this resolution : 

"Resolved, That a committee of the New York 
Letter Carriers' Association be authorized to con- 
fer with the Letter Carriers of the United States, 
for the purpose of raising a subscription for a suit- 
able monument to be placed over the remains of 
the devoted friend of the Letter Carriers of the 
United States." 

In the end the erection of a statue in Astor 
Place was decided upon. The dedication of this 
statue, on the anniversary of the nation's inde- 
pendence, was an imposing ceremony. Delega- 
tions of Letter Carriers came for the purpose, from 
far and near, even the Pacific Coast and the Gulf 
States being represented. Two thousand carriers 
turned out from New York and Brooklyn alone. 
Charles P. Kelly, President of the Carriers' Asso- 
ciation, New York, was grand marshal of the pro- 
cession. George H. Newson, chairman of the 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 199 

statue committee, made the speech of presentation 
to the city, and President Arnold of the Board of 
Aldermen, received it in the city's behalf. The 
orator of the occasion was Gen. Thomas Ewing, 
formerly of Ohio, an associate of Mr. Cox in Con- 
gress and the friend of his earlier years. In the 
course of his eloquent tribute, Mr. Ewlng said : 

"Letter Carriers of the United States: Well may 
you commemorate his public services. The work 
he did for you would not have been done by an- 
other. When he espoused your cause in Congress 
you had no national organization through which 
to command public respect, and there were not 
enough of you in any one constituency to give you 
any other champion in Congress than him whose 
support went out to you without a thought as to 
your numbers or his own interest. But for his 
unselfish sympathy and zeal you would have no 
redress of hardships and grievances, but would 
have gone on to this day tramping your weary- 
rounds from daylight to dark, through winter's 
cold and summer's heat, underpaid and over- 
worked." 

Recognition of Mr. Cox's effective aid to the Let- 
ter Carriers' has been freely and on every suitable 
occasion made by them. And in the House of 
Representatives in June, 1898, graceful acknowl- 
edgment thereof was made by Mr. Cox's successor 
in these words: 

"Mr. Bradley — Mr. Chairman — Representing as 
I do a district which was formerly represented by 
one of the ablest men that ever graced the halls of 
Congress, a man to whom the Letter Carrier was 
the darling of his heart, and who did more to build 
up the postal service than any other one man in 



200 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

the United States, the late Samuel S. Cox, I feel 
that I would be an unworthy successor of his if I 
failed in my humble way to do what I could to fur- 
ther the work which he did so much to forward." 

Mr. Cox's last speech made in Congress, in Feb- 
ruary, 1889, was in behalf of the postoflflce clerks, 
to extend to them the benefits already enjoyed by 
the carriers, as to classification and fixed salaries. 

"Mr. Chairman," he said, "in opening his 
speech, "I have the honor and the pleasure to take, 
perhaps, an unusual interest in the postoffice de- 
partment. That interest has been special, and on 
certain lines it is somewhat limited. The delivery 
system has long been associated with my duties 
here, and, I may say, even my anxieties abroad. 
But the Letter Carriers have had not an unreason- 
able, on the contrary, quite a kindly, provision 
made for them as to the increase of their pay, their 
vacation, their recreation, and their hours of ser- 
vice. But how superbly have they recompensed 
the government for its benf actions ! As the facts 
justify our pride over my previous efforts in their 
behalf, may I be permitted to present now and 
here the last results of this free delivery or letter 
carrier service? Facts furnish the vindication of 
this system. They simply astound the mind as 
well as please the heart." The work w^hich would 
have placed the Postoflflce Clerks on the same 
plane of protection as the carriers, he did not live 
to finish. Nor does the flight of years in anywise 
lessen the Letter Carriers' grateful appreciation of 
the valued services of their deceased benfactor. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



FATHER OF THE LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 

Of no achieyement to which he could look back 
at the close of his legislative service was Mr. Cox 
more proud than of the creation by Federal statute 
of the Life Saving Service. This measure was not 
only introduced into Congress by him, but it was 
pressed with tireless zeal, until he had the trium- 
phant satisfaction of witnessing its passage and 
the service duly established. 

A Chicago paper, after his death, characterized 
the Life Saving Service "a grand monument to his 
wisdom and humanity." In that very year, the 
same authority stated "over 3,950 persons were 
rescued and ships and cargoes valued at |7,966,660 
saved" through this service. "Ages hence," it added 
"S. S. Cox will be remembered by those who go 
doAvn to sea in shiips and are rescued from the 
treacherous waves by the crews of life boats." Mr. 
Cox, in a speech in 1878, in the House, attributed 
the inspiration of his efforts in this direction to a 
storm in the Scilly Isles, in the winter of 1868, 
when a great steamer barely escaped shipwreck. 
"It was," he said "the worst tempest in thirty 
years upon that coast. When we arrived in port, 
the day after the i>eril, the English journals were 
full of the glorious exploits, by rock'et and signal 



202 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

and coast guard and mortar and life boat. I won- 
dered, if so much could be done in England, with 
her forty-five hundred miles of coast line, why 
should not our country, with double that number 
of miles, have a similarly efficient service. It was 
this that led me to propose what the superinten- 
dent of the service called the efficient beginning 
of the patrol of the Jersey coast. Since that time 
how much has been done for the well being and 
rescue of imperiled lives! How much of comfort 
and joy has been vouchsafed to families and 
friends of the beneficiaries of that mercy which 
droppeth as the gentle rains from heaven in this 
warm-hearted legisiAtion, blessing and blessed." 
The close of his speech was as follows: 
"Mr. Speaker: I have spent the best part of my 
life in this public service. Most of it has been like 
writing in water. The reminiscences of party 
wrangling and political strife seem to me like neb- 
ulae of the past, without form and almost void. 
But what little I have accomplished in connection 
with this Life Saving Service is compensation 
sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. It is its own 
exceeding great reward. It speaks to me in the 
voices of the rescued; aye, in tears of speechless 
feeling; speaks of resurrection from death — 
In spite of wreck and tempest's roar. 
In spite of false lights on the shore; 
speaks of a faith triumphant over all fears in the 
better elements of our human nature. It sounds 
like the undulations of the Sabbath bell, ringing in 
peace and felicity. It comes to me in the words of 
Him who, regardless of His own life, gave it freely 
that others might be saved. 

"Humanitv and civilization should walk white- 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 203 

handed along with goTemment. They strengthen 
and save society. In the perils which environ our 
country, from passion and prejudice, from old ani- 
mosities and new irritations, let us do good deeds 
— pray hopefully that our vessel of state be free 
from leakage, collision, wreck and loss. Send out 
the life-boat; fire the line over the imperiled ves- 
sel ; free the hawser for the life-car, and then with 
stout hearts and thankful souls lift up our prayer 
to Him who holds the sea in the hollow of His 
hand." 

The effect of this eloquent appeal was electric. 
Almost immediately the bill passed the House, and 
without one dissenting vote. 

The speech attracted wide attention and elicited 
everywhere the highest encomiums. At a meeting 
of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York 
held June 11, 1878, the following preamble and res- 
olution offered by Alderman Morris were adopted: 

"Whereas, Hon. Samuel S. Cox, one of the repre- 
sentatives in Congress from this city, has delivered 
an effective and patriotic speech in the House of 
Representative's in behalf of humanity and the suf- 
fering; and as he has given almost his whole life 
to assist in perfecting the Life Saving System and 
to establish its workings on our coast, from Maine 
to California, by which thousands of lives and mill- 
ions of dollars have been saved to all nationalities. 
Therefore be it 

"Resolved, That the Board of Aldermen of the 
City of New York tender to the Hon. Samuel S. 
Cox and to all members of Congress and other per- 
sons conected in any way with this life saving and 
humane institution, their sincere and heartfelt 



304 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

thanks, not unmindful of the assistance given to 
it by the press of the country. And be it further 

"Resolved, That the Clerk of this Board be au- 
thorized and directed to have this engrossed and 
forwarded to the Hon. Samuel S. Cox. 
Adopted by the Board of Aldermen, June 11th, 

1878. 
Approved by the Mayor, June 17th, 1878. 

Francis J. Twoomey, 
Clerk Common Council." 

In Congress after Congress the onslaught upon 
the Life Saving Service, assuming one guise or an- 
other, was renewed, and as often successfully met 
by its sturdy champion. Some of the most eloquent 
appeals ever heard on the floor of Congress were 
made by Mr. Cox on these occasions. The following 
extracts must suffice as examples: 

[From a speech in the House, 1878 ] 

"This service is, in a high sense, divinely beauti- 
ful. Although it is limited to this country of ours, 
yet its benefaction knows no boundary, and its 
example is an incentive to the benevolent of all 
lands. It rescues the people of all nationalities. 
No wonder that the nations are following our ex- 
ample. 

"Denmark is seeking to introduce our system 
amidst her belts, coasts, and isles. No wonder 
that Holland — the child of the sea — is asking for 
our instructions, signals, and paraphernalia for 
life-saving. If I may be allowed to say it, the 
Turkish and Russian maritime people are endeav- 
oring to adapt our system to the increasing com- 
merce of the Black Sea, at the mouth of the his- 
toric Bosphorus. Two thousand years ago — after 
Jason had navigated to Colchis for the golden 
fleece — temples were built to the gods of Greece 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 205 

at the perilous mouth of these classic waters. At 
their altars the votive offerings of sailors were 
laid, because of the tempestuous character of that 
inland sea. I have recently seen the ruins of 
these temples that were dedicated to Jupiter, 
Neptune and other heathen gods, to whom invoca- 
tions were made to save the adventurous naviga- 
tor from disaster and death. 

"Whereas, Mr. Speaker — these ancient mariners 
appealed to Jupiter and Neptune — we appeal to 
practical mechanics. We invoke the genius of 
chemistry, with its colored signals, its line, car, 
buoy, powder and howitzer. We add to electric- 
ity and steam the dauntless heroism of the surf- 
man. Odessa and Constantinople, by voluntary 
effort are copying our example in thus rescuing 
the imperiled. 

"Yet, sir, in conclusion, there is a higher sanc- 
tion than the Constitution or humanity. It is that 
of Him who stilled the waves of Galilee to save 
imperiled human life. It is said that in the beauty 
of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, and 
in the glory of his bosom he transfigured you and 
me. He died to make men holy, and for the salva- 
tion of human souls in desperate shipwrecks 
through sins. We may not imitate his example, 
here, sir, except afar off, but, by our voice and 
vote, we may do something by this measure to 
throw around our legislation a divine aureoh; 
and save human life, so precious to Him who gave 
His life to save the lives of others. (Applause.) 

"Ah! sir; there is a pathetic poetry belonging to 
the sea, which is all too sad for the ordinary prose 
of human composition. The sea has been the 
theme of praise by many writers; their vivid de- 



206 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

scriptions remain in the memory. They have ap- 
plauded its services as the great purveyor of the 
world's commodities, for the diversity of food 
which it yields, and, most of all, for the 'wonders 
of the Lord in the deep.' But no pen has ever done 
justice to the gi'andeur of its aspect, even in calm, 
or to the might of its tempests in storm. It is 
eaid that it entertains the sun with vapors, the 
moon with obsequiousness, the stars with a mirror 
the sky with clouds, the air with temperateness, 
the soil with subtileness, the rivers with tides, the 
hills with moisture, and the valleys with fertility. 
It gives meditation to the mind, and the world to 
the world, all parts thereof to each part, by the art 
of arts — navigation. Still, above all is that rest- 
less, overwhelming power, in the wild tumult of 
its wrath, when its crested waves make a compact 
with the clouds and the winds, the thunder and the 
thunderbolt, and sweep on in their dread alliance. 
And yet, to sustain the art of navigation, there is 
another art, called into being by the genius of man, 
which dares contend against the wild, insatiable, 
and reckless S,aturnalia of the sea. Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes compares the sea with the mountains, 
to the great disadvantage of the sea. He loves — 
as who does not — the mountains, where the least 
of things seem infinite; but the sea is to him a huge 
feline, licking your feet, purring at times pleas- 
antly, but ready to crack your bones and eat you 
for all that, and then wipe the crimsoned foam 
from its jaws as if nothing had happened. The 
sea had for him a fascinating, treacherous intelli- 
gence, stretching out its shining length, and by 
and by lashing itself into rage, showing its white 
teeth, and ready to spring at the bars while howl- 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 207 

ing the cry of its mad fury! That furious wild ani- 
mal, the arts of man has caged and bound! Before 
the genius of man the wildest waves become calm. 
Parent and child, wife and husband, brother and 
sister and lover, who are tempest-tossed and 
stranded, are rescued from the washing and wast- 
ing element, which is subdued and enchanted by 
human bravery. As Byron has sung, "Man has 
wantoned with its breakers, and that which was 
a terror becomes a pleasing fear." Our noble 
crews defying its billows, have laid their hands 
upon its mane and tamed it to their will. In the 
old days it was said that it was beautiful to die 
for one's countiy. Under the inspiration of mar- 
tial music and other martial exercises patriotic 
men rush to the conflict and die. Nations vote 
pensions and decorations to the hero who first 
plants a flag on a parapet or rescues it from an 
enemy. How much nobler to decorate and pen- 
sion the man who, seeing one of his own kind, 
though a stranger, in the struggle and despair of 
death, plunges into the very jaws of the unseen 
future amidst darkness and danger to reclaim his 
fellow-being from a watery grave. Who can 
measure the wonderful grace of that government 
which not only provides for the rescue of the vic- 
tims and the stranded ships from the storm, but 
gives consolation to those who, as Jeremy Taylor 
well says, have not yet suffered shipwreck, but 
who amidst the dark night, an ill guide, and a 
boisterous sea, and broken cable, and hard rock, 
and a rough wind, may be dashed in pieces with 
the fortunes of a whole family, and they that shall 
weep loudest for the accident have not yet entered 
into the stonn? We may construct upon our 



208 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

shore the image of Liberty holding up its torch to 
enlighten the world; we may allure the immigrant 
to our country by this lustrous imagery at the har- 
bor of our great metropolis; but no such light, 
even though dazzling with its electric brilliancy, 
will attract the attention of the good men of our 
kind like the serene and blessed illumination that 
radiates from our life-saving statute and pro- 
claims to all the world — to men of every condition, 
race and nationality — that when overcome by the 
terrific disasters of the sea, they have at every per- 
ilous point upon our coast the heroic courage of 
men who are equipped and ready to leap into the 
surf, to launch their boats through its 'league-long 
rollers,' to breast the tempest in its angry howling, 
and to rescue those who are hanging upon the vast 
abyss and about to be swallow^ed by the angry 
waters. It is said in the New Testament that a 
man will give his life for his friend. But these 
men, almost without pay, with a lion-hearted cour- 
age far excelling that of the soldier under the im- 
pulse of patriotic devotion — are ready in the pur- 
suit of their high duty to glorify our human nature 
by laying dow^n their lives, if need be, for those — 
even those who are aliens and strangers." 

[Prom a speech. 1888.] 

"May I not, then, take pardonable pride in the 
establishment and progress of this system, which 
has no peer in the world for its effective work and 
no paragon in the history of nations for its inspi- 
ration? I sometimes think, Mr. Speaker, that I 
have, through the mercy of God, more than my 
compensation for the little I have done in the pro- 
motion of this service. When struggling for life 
one year ago, in this city, when the little will 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 209 

power wliich was remaining was ready to succumb 
before the ravages of disease and the agony of 
pain, and when friends had almost given up my 
surviving, I cast my eyes upon two pictures at 
either side of my sick bed. 

"One was that of the life-boat going out through 
the storm to the rescue of a ship wrecked upon a 
rock-bound coast, while there on the shore the rel- 
atives of the surfmen stand speechless with anx- 
iety as to the fate of the brave men who hazard all 
for the rescue. The other picture is that of the 
same life-boat coming in. It is laden with its 
precious freight. The howling storm, the chime 
of the breakers, and the dark clouds around the 
beetling cliffs; the cry goes up from thankful 
hearts, ^All safe; all well.' 

"In my poor sick fancy I grasped the tiller of 
the life-boat. I clung to it with the tenacity that 
overcame the sinking heart of an emaciated body. 
The good doctor, when I related to him the inci- 
dent and the source, and how it had inspired me 
with a fresh hope and a new life, gave me smiling 
asurance that I might still survive as a rescued 
man to plead for the Life-Saving Service in many 
Congresses. 

"I have said, Mr. Speaker, that we have one 
beautiful statute which as a sacred halo around 
it. It makes a sunshine in the shadow of our 
selfish, sectional, and patriotic codes and laws. It 
is that which preserves human life. It is not 
merely a sentimental humanity, but a real bene- 
faction. Like the orange tree, it bears fruit and 
flowers at the same time. * * 

"It is no exaggeration to say, in view of its ob- 
ject, that it gives us a glimpse, though dim, of the 



210 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

golden age. The world's heart clings to it as if 
it were a memory of a past paradise or the home 
of a paradise regained. The sea itself plays its 
mighty minstrelsy in its honor. * * » 
Life is precious because its loss can not be repair- 
ed. Jeremy Taylor has told us that while our 
senses are double there is but one death, but 
once only to be acted, and that in an instant, and 
upon that instant all eternity depends. Other 
losses may be recompensed by gains, but loss by 
death never. No one is so lordly or powerful as to 
stay this irreparable loss. Every day puts us in 
peril; while we think we die. What care and es- 
teem can equal the eternal weight of human life? 
Can any legislation be too ample or adequate for 
its production?" 

In grateful recognition of his devotion to the up- 
building of the Life Saving S^ervice, the members 
of that service presented to his widow, a few 
months after his death, a memorial vase. The pre- 
sentationwas made with appropriate ceremony at 
Mrs. Cox's home in Washington, in the presence of 
a notable gathering of relatives and friends, the 
General Superintendent, Sumner I. Kimball, rep- 
resenting the Service. "The vase," as described in 
one of the publications of the day, "is two feet in 
height, two feet one inch in circumference, and 
weighs one hundred twenty-five ounces. On the 
front of the vase is a scene representing the life- 
savers engaged in rescuing people from a stranded 
vessel by means of the breeches buoy. Some dis- 
tance out, where the sea rises in mountains, is the 
wrecked vessel, with torn sails and shattered spars. 
At various points along the beach life-savers are 









Oj^ 






v' 






1^ 



-'> 



VASE PRESENTED TO MRS. COX BY LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 211 

seen lifting bodies from the heavy surf and car- 
rying them ashore. In direct contrast with this 
wild scene is the ornamentation that circles the 
body of the vase. This consists of a cable net in 
which are caught starfish, seaweed and odd-ap- 
pearing plants and shells that are known to in- 
habit the depths of the ocean. A ledge formed by 
a ship's chain supports this net, while above is a 
profile of Mr. Cox circled with laurel against a 
background of sea coral. A life buoy crossed with 
a boathook and oar rests at the top. The handles 
at the sides are composed of two beautifully 
formed mermaids, who, with bowed heads and 
curved bodies, hold in their upraised hands sea 
plants that grow from the side of the top. The in- 
scription is as follows: 

THIS MEMORIAIv VASE 

IS PRESENTED TO 

MRS. SAMUEL S. COX. 

BY THE MEMBERS OF 

THE^EIFE-SAVING SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE TIRELESS AND SUCCESSFUL 
EFFORTS OF HER DISTINGUISHED HUSBAND, 

THE HONORABLE SAMUEE SUEEIVAN COX, 

TO PROMOTE THE INTERESTS AND ADVANCE THE EFFICIENCY AND GLORY 
OF THE LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 



He was its early and constant friend; 
Its earnest and eloquent advocate; 
Its fearless and faithful champion. 



212 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

General Superintendent Kimball, in his presen- 
tation address recalled the history of the Life-Sav- 
ing Service. ''The system," he said, "was initiated 
in 1871, but the way was prepared in 1870 Avhen an 
amendment to an appropriation bill to provide for 
the employment of crews of surfmen at the sta- 
tions on the New Jersey coast for the winter 
months having been defeated, Mr. Cox, after a 
sharp and persistent contest, secured the passage 
of a substitute authorizing their employment at 
every alternate station. This was probably the first 
time his attention had been attracted to the idea 
of rescuing the shipwrecked by organized effort 
from the shore, and from that hour he became its 
devoted adherent and champion. 

"It opened the door to the subsequent employ- 
ment of crews at all the stations, and only through 
this door lay directly the way to the establishment 
of the present organization. As Mr. Cox antici- 
pated, the very defects of the provision hastened 
and aided the advance. The next appropriation 
bill providing for sundry civil expenses of the 
government, approved April 20 ,1871, appropriated 
a Bufi&cient amount to permit the construction of 
several additional stations and to replenish the 
equipments of the old ones', and authorized the 
Secretary of the Treasury to employ crews at such 
stations as he might deem necessary. He caused 
their emploj^ment at all. This permitted, upon 
the limited stretch of coast to which the stations 
were confined, the initiation of a plan of organiza- 
tion which was the prototype of the system that 
to-day extends over the entire coast of the country. 
The result that followed was so immediate and 
striking as to arrest general attention. At the close 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX. 213 

of the season it was found that not a life had been 
lost within the field of this guardianship." 

But the struggle was not over. The opposition 
to apropriations for the Life Saving S,ervice was re- 
newed Congress after Congress, originating gener- 
ally with members representing districts far re- 
mote from the seacoast. It was seemingly a "bat- 
tle once begun, never done." Mr. Cox was at the 
front of every battle and invariably saved the day 
for the life savers. In the Forty-fifth Congress he 
secured his most signal victor}^ It was proposed to 
transfer the service from the treasury to the naval 
control. A long and desperate contest ensued, 
Mr. Cox marshaling the forces of the opjDosition 
to the proposed change, which he believed to be 
fraught with infinite peril to the system. "The 
closing days of the session," said Superintendent 
Kimball," brought a signal victory for the service, 
and witnessed one of the most notable triumphs 
for Mr. Cox that has ever marked the annals of 
Congress. It was in the final encounter of this 
protracted struggle that he made that memorable 
speech that must always be accounted the ablest of 
all the great speeches that distinguished his long 
and brilliant career. Its effect upon the auditors 
was magical and a scene ensued that has rarely if 
ever been paralleled in Congress. " A member who 
was present thus describes the scene: 

"A number of speeches had been made; his was 
the last. No especial interest was manifested in 
the subject; nothing to distinguish it from the or- 
dinary discussions that daily take place in the 
House. It was in the morning after the routine 
business had been disposed of that Mr. Cox arose. 
The attention of members was gradually arrested. 



214 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

The calling of pages by the clapping of hands grew 
less frequent as he proceeded. In a short time the 
members sat enchained by the eloquence of his ad- 
dress. Now and then there was applause, but when 
he stopped a profound silence pervaded the 
House. 

"In a moment or two it was broken by a member 
near by extending his congratulations to him. He 
was quickly followed by another; then two or three 
pressed forward to take him by the hand; when 
almost simultaneously a score or more approached 
him, and in less time than I can describe it every 
member was on his way up the aisle towards him 
to extend his congratulations. No attempt was 
made to continue business. The speaker of the 
House acquiesced in the temporary interruption 
and only called the members to order when they 
had resumed their seats. I sat immediately oppo 
site to him during the delivery of the speech and 
was the last member to grasp him by the hand. As 
I did so I saw that he had been moved to tear* 
and not a word passed between us. I doubt very 
much whether, in the whole history of this body^ 
any speech had such an instantaneous effect. It 
was a high tribute to the orator. Aye, it was 
more. It was a homage paid to his subject. He 
struck the key-note of humanity, and all within its 
sound responded to its spell." 

"Probably," said Superintendent Kimball, "no 
speech ever made in the House produced so con- 
spicuous a change of sentiment upon a pending 
question. The bill passed without a dissenting 
voice. The chosen leader of the opposition, a mem- 
ber distinguished for his eloquence and ability, 
had entered the hall before the discussion began. 




SUMNER I. KIMBALL. 
Superintendent of Life Saving Service. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 215 

with books and documents which he intended to 
use in closing the debate for his side. When he saw 
the whole House file up the aisle to congratulate 
bis antagonist he joined the throng, and upon 
reaching him said : 'Mr. Cox, you have anticipated 
and answered every point I expected to make; you 
have left me nothing to say.' 

"Is it any wonder," asked Superintendent Kim- 
ball, "that when the announcement of his death 
flashed over the land, and was repeated by tele- 
phone from station to station, a gloom fell upon 
the coast from Maine to Texas on the Atlantic, 
and from Washington to the southern boundary 
of California on the Pacific, and all around the 
shores of the great inland lakes, such as had never 
overshadowed it before?" 

Senator William P. Frye, of Maine, chairman of 
the Senate committee on Commerce, followed Su- 
perintendent Kimball, in an eloquent tribute, of 
which the following is a part: 

"I knew Mr. Cox well; serv^ed with him in the 
House ten years; was honored with his friendship, 
and admired him intensely. He was a remarkable 
man. Michael Angelo, for more than four hundred 
years, has stood out in bold relief — painter, sculp- 
tor, architect, poet, and engineer. Mr. Cox was as 
many sided as he, not standing, it may be, so far 
above his fellows, but neither ordinary nor com- 
monplace in any of the elements of his greatness. 
He was an orator, capable of moving to laughter 
or to tears. He could subdue the stormy House to 
quietness and make its members listeners. His 
imagination occasionally inspired him to wonder- 
ful flights of eloquence skyward, but he could, too, 
when it served his purpose, keep close to the 



216 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

ground. He was a logician, strong in solid argu- 
ment to convict and convert. Thoroughly equipped 
by hard study, ceaseless toil, extended travels, 
long experience, he was a ready disputant whom 
no man could afford to despise. 

"But the crowning quality of his greatness — 
that which will keep his memory fresh when oth- 
ers, his peers intellectually, are forgotten — was his 
great loving heart, his humanity to man. The 
dying soldier and the cup of cold water alone im- 
mortalized Sir Philip Sidney. It was this trait of 
character that made all his colleagues in the 
House his warm personal friends, even through 
contests sharp and sometimes bitter. It was this 
that preserved a sweetness neither time nor age 
nor contest, nor disappointed ambition could sour. 
It was this that inspired his championship of the 
sailor and the surfman, of the carrier and the 
laborer, of the Indian, the Irishman and the He- 
brew — of the downtrodden, friendless and perse- 
cuted whenever and wherever he found them." 

Such was the testimony borne by a political an- 
tagonist, with whom during their many years' 
service together on the floor of Congress, Mr. Cox 
had often crossed swords. 

Among Mr. Cox's papers was found, after his 
death, a little pocket manual of "instructions to 
mariners in case of shipwreck, with information 
concerning the life-saving stations upon the coasts 
of the United States." After the quoted words, on 
the title page, he had written, "for which thank 
God!" 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



FOUR NEW STARS. 



Mr. Cox was a thorough believer in the "mani- 
fest destiny" of the Republic, and stood ever ready 
to give consistent support to measures for the en- 
largement of the circle of the union of states. In 
his last session in congress, closing with the first 
term of President Cleveland on March 4, 1889, he 
spoke and labored with all the energy of which he 
was capable in favor of the admission of four new 
states — the two Dakotas, Montana, and Washing- 
ton. It was a Democratic House, and there was 
a determined opposition to their admission on 
party grounds. That this opposition was over- 
come was conceded to be primarily due to the ef- 
forts of Mr. Cox. 

"There is," he confessed in a speech made in the 
House January 15, 1889, during the last session of 
his service in that body, "a sort of glamor and fas- 
cination about the admission of states into our im- 
perial federation. I am subject to influences of a 
romantic character. But they have not disturbed, 
and I think will not disturb, that discretion which 
belongs to congress when it votes to make com- 
plete the circle of our federal felicities. 



318 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"Mr. Speaker, as we approach the centenary of 
the life of our nation the mind becomes reminis- 
cent. It would also be prophetic. In dim outline 
the ancient seers saw, through the mists of west- 
ern seas, our hemisphere as the home of a race 
which rejoiced in a 'golden age.' These dreams 
take hold upon the imagination. They give an illu- 
sion to our 'discretion' on bills like these looking 
to future empire. 

"The imaginary commonwealth of Plato was not 
altogether unsubstantial. Some of the visions 
upon the horizon of our early epochs have found 
realization. But a republic never imagined by 
Plato, nor dreamed of by Harrington or Sir 
Thomas More, has found its home in our hemis- 
phere. Like all hope that has its fruition, this has 
come to us through toil, danger and heroism. These 
sacrifices have no parallel in the adventures of our 
race or upon our planet." 

"This question of admission," he added, "is not 
a party question. In the nature of things it cannot 
be. The people of the territories are not wedded to 
any party. They are remote and isolated; preoc- 
cupied mth absorbing local matters. They are 
easily molded, like the clay in the hands of the 
potter. As the wheel whirls, a little pressure here 
and a little pressure there, and out comes the 
graceful vase, irrespective of the rude and selfish 
manipulations of our Federal politics. If these 
territories be not admitted this session they will 
surely be admitted under Kepublican auspices in 
the next Congress, and their politics will take the 
reflection of the friends who give them their early 
nurture." Again he said: "Refuse to admit this 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 219 

state and its territorial sisters? Why, sir, you may 
enact that frost shall cease in the north and blooms 
in the south, or try to fix the figure of Proteus by 
statute, but you can not prevent the people of this 
territory from their demand, and you must accede 
to it; and if this Congress does not, we know that 
the next Congress will. The spirit of this people 
of the Northwest is that of unbounded push and 
energy. These are the men who have tunneled our 
mountains, who have delved our mines, who have 
bridged our rivers, who have brought every part 
of our empire within the reach of foreign and home 
markets, who have made possible our grand 
growth and splendid development. They are the 
men who have made our national life. There is no 
parallel in history to their achievements. You can 
not hold them as captive to the Federal system. 
You must give them self-reliant statehood. 

"The historian of Eome draws a picture of the 
proud Queen of Palmyra arrayed in purple and 
loaded Tvith golden chains to aggrandize the pro- 
cession in honor of the conqueror of Asia. It 
needs no such imagination to picture the condition 
of our inchoate states in the West. They will 
wear no golden cfhains. No, sir! They will march 
in no procession of dishonor. Such exhibitions do 
not belong to our country. Our people are not to 
be led in fetters at the car of an imperial Con- 
gress. Why, such exhibitions were unfit even for 
pagan Rome. So that in every possible equip- 
ment, whether divided or united, this remarkable 
territory is ready to join that circle of felicity 
which makes up the federal fraternity." 

Anxious to testify their gratitude to him in per- 
son, the citizens of the newly invested States, 



220 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

urged Mr. Cox, after the adjournment of Congress, 
to make a tour to their far off country. Accord- 
ingly, in June, accompanied by his wife, in re- 
sponse to 'tlheir pressing invitation, he set out on 
his journey across the continent. Everywhere he 
was hailed as the father of the infant states. A 
continuous ovation it was. On the Fourth of July 
the announcement t!hat he was to deliver the ad- 
dress at Huron, Dakota, sufficed to attract crowds 
from all available points of the new state. The 
address closed with these words: 

"Standing upon the thresholds of these young 
sitates, and in the morning of another century, may 
we not have glimpses of the far future of their 
destiny? It may not be that of a Paradise re- 
gained; it may not be that of a New Atlantis rising 
from the wave, and where no frost congeals and 
no storm vexes; it may not be a Platonian ideal, 
where the abstract and the object are One, and 
that One is all beautiful with Truth and Virtue; 
it may not be some indefinite Utopia wearing its 
coronal of unreal happiness beneath Equatorial 
realms, but as men reason, is it not probable that 
in these new states, in the very heart of the conti- 
nent, may be found the shining nucleus and the 
concentraited genius of the most miraculous pro- 
gress known to human society? Already we may 
hear the cheerful music of requited toil, inspiring 
the builders of new Tiomes and the founders of new 
commonwealths, with the incentive to and the 
fruition of the best human energy under the most 
favored institutions. 

"Your celebration here and now is manifold in 
meaning. It combines Jefferson and the Declara- 
tion, Washington and the Constitution, Jefferson 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 221 

and Louisiana, and therefore Jefferson and Da- 
kota. It embraces France with her revolution 
and our own, and France with Louisiana, Wash- 
ington, Jefferson and Dakota, and all imbound in 
the golden rigol of republican institutions and 
human felicity. Said I not rightly, as men count 
the periods of time — ^it is a wonderful year? 

"If other celebrations of this day be only the 
laudation of the historic past, then they will be a 
mere ostentation, which will die with the year. 
But your jubilee unites hope with history and ad- 
Yancement with memory. 

"Yours, citizens of tlie Northwest, is a celebra- 
tion that bids the glowing scenes of the future at 
distance, hail! No more the appre'hension of the 
stealthy tread of the moccasin. No more the 
plash of the French trader's oar in your lakes and 
streams. Touch the pulse of our active age and 
you will feel the throb of the mighty mechanic 
movement which interweaves your interchanges 
with the world. Place your ear to the earth and 
you will hear the tramp, tramp, tramp of the com- 
ing generationsw Stretch your vision from your 
dawning centenary eminence, and lo! Chaos and 
old Night roll away before an auroral splendor, 
'far-sinking into splendor without end.' 

"All hail! Sisters of the Northwest! As one not 
altogether unfamiliar with your territory and its 
inspirations, as one who has in the generation gone 
by endeavored to champion the rig*hts and wel- 
come the coming of the states, upon your southern 
and eastern border, even as the humblest of those 
accredited from the great entrepot of commerce to 
the National Congress — may I not be permitted to 
welcome you to the enjoyment of the privileges, 



222 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

advantages, immunities and guarantees which 
protect property, reputation, person, liberty, relig- 
ion and life. Welcome to the Olympian race in 
which ye are about to start upon the course of con- 
tinental empire! All ihail! the promise of your 
superb morning, and may it be glorious to the 
end! Under favoring auspices may you so direct 
your destiny that the genius of your race and pol- 
ity shall flourish beyond the imagination of man 
to conceive, or 

' — Modern Homers 

Sing, or smiling Freedom write 

In their Iliads of Peace." 
A pathetic interest attaches to this journey and 
this address, as both were his last. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



OLD CAMPAIGNING DAYS IN OHIO. 

Of his old campaigning days in Licking, Ohio, 
Mr. Cox indulged to the full in reminiscence, in a 
letter addressed to the chairman of the Democratic 
County Committee of that county expressive of his 
regret that illness forced an abandonment of his 
engagement to speak in his old home, in the cam- 
paign of 1878. He was en route to keep his en- 
gagement when he was taken ill, and halted at 
Pittsburg. ''But," he writes, "as I 'lay sick of a fe- 
ver,' all the old memories of campaigning in Lick- 
ing thronged my mind, robed in many visionary 
hues, and founded on many a serious and jolly 
experience. I forgot for a time my trouble, and 
the hum of the big city I had left; threw off the 
coil of self interest, and lived again in the early 
manhood. These memories were quickened by the 
pleasing hope of renewing scenes of a score of 
years and more ago. Since then, your fields, for- 
ests and houses have changed; but not so much,. I 
fear, as the good, jocund and wise friends of that 
day. But the well known voices and faces came 
trooping to my bedside, and I resolved, if I could, 
to reproduce them on paper, if they did not escape 
me on my memory. There are times when the 
drums are unmuffled and they sound for the rally 



224 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

and onset as of yore." And then recalling many 
a person and many an incident of the days gone by 
in "old Licking" he adds: 

"Many lands have I seen since, redolent of asso- 
ciations, classic and romantic; but not in Van- 
cluse, where Petrarch sung of Laura, nor in Scot- 
land, where Burns sung of his Hig'hland Mary, have 
there been sweeter thoughts than I have had of 
thy vale, sweet Cheri'y Valley! Other lands may 
produce finer sheep, but give me Harrison and 
Union, with their stock of Democratic shepherds, 
like Colonel Alward, and another now dead and 
nameless, who never allowed me to pass his house 
without dedicating an eagle, with a flask to it, full 
of "copper distilled" of his own brewing, which 
(the eagle) received our special chrism in a wagon 
shed near by. One hazelnut from the groves of 
Fallsbury dissipates all memory of the oranges 
and palms of Andalusia; a taste of the indigenous 
peach from Hopewell, makes the apricots and nec- 
tarines of the Mediterranean pall on the taste; 
and the buckwheats, crinkled over with the dulcet 
sirups of sorghum and Democracy, were made 
sweeter by the relish I saw the bees take of the 
purple flower as it bloomed in the fields of Bur- 
ling-ton and Bennington. You may not, but others 
may recall the procession as it came under the lead 
of the most militant of militia captains from Hope- 
well and the southeast part of the county. It in- 
variably had that same string band. Is the band 
dissolved? I have heard many strange noises since 
I have lived in this isle of Manhattan, and much 
rare music, too. I have heard the weird songs and 
tomtoms of Africa, listened to the tinkle of the 
guitar and the clink of the castanet in Spain; have 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 225 

listened to Tamberlik and Patti and all the stars 
of operatic song; have held my breath before that 
wonderful power which is evoked out of sound, by 
the German skill of Gluck, Bach, Handel, Hayden, 
Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Spohr, Mendelssohn 
and Schuman; have been entranced, if not mys- 
tified, by the transcendental genius of Wagner, 
translating out of the inner soul the myths of the 
past for the music of the future; and yet — yet, give 
me the string band of the Flint Ridge boys and 
their gallant captain. There was heart, soul and 
patriotism in it. It was enough to satisy the sen- 
timent as it pleases the memory. 

"Men may come and go. Time with its chemis- 
try changes even iron; the water drop in twenty 
years will wear away the granite. These bodies of 
ours, more easily affected than iron and granite, 
change and go first. The^^ suffer many vicissi- 
tudes; but the indestructible memory of twenty 
years ago in old Licking will never die. I live in a 
town of twelve hundred thousand people, whose 
factories make the big shafts and engines which 
mate Neptune in his wildest tempest; but after all, 
there is no stream, however small, like that which 
dances through the memory of early days; no en- 
terprise so interesting as that which identifies one 
with early associations. Is there any thing dearer 
to my heart than those farmer homes, where the 
wooden latch lifted so easily to the touch? or 
whose large open fireplace glowed so cheerily in 
the autumn nights, and whose big feather beds 
gave such delicious rest from the weariness of the 
political arena? It is not what is big, but what is 
dear that is remembered." 



CHAPTEK XXIX. 



MEMBER OP THE COBDEN CLUB. 



A Western member had savagely assailed Mr. 
Cox for being a member of the Cobden club. In a 
speech in the House shortly after (May 17, 1888) 
on "The Surplus and the Tariff," Mr. Cox took oc- 
casion incidentally to pay his respects to his assail- 
ant, and to vindicate his own record. The follow- 
ing is an excerpt: 

"Names are not much in a debate, but as the 
gentleman has spread my middle name — Sullivan 
— on the record, I must analyze that also a little 
in return, by^saying that Sullivan is from the Latin 
"Sol" and "Levant." Sun Rise! (Laughter.) My 
ancestor came from the East. I went back as hi^ 
reflux wave. (Laughter). I may mention confi- 
dentially that one of my ancestors carried a hod 
at the building of Solomon's Temple. (Laug'hter.) 
All I know of the family is that a recent ancestor 
came over from Ireland with Lord Baltimore. He 
was in ^noble' company. I need not enlarge fur- 
ther. There is another test of Celtic blood to 
w'hich I may refer, as it is so pertinent to the Mills 
bill. The gentleman from Nevada will be pleased 
to know that his championship of the Tory protec- 
tionists of England indicates that he leans 
towards, if he does not belong to, the bluest blood 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 227 

of the landed aristocracy of England. Evidently 
the speech of the gentleman was for the purpose 
of prejudicing the Irish against the Democracy, by 
reason of their dislike to their English oppressors. 
But his arrow falls far short of the mark. The 
gentleman was pleased to say something compli- 
mentary of myself as a member of the Democratic 
party, and referred to me as a representative of a 
cosmopolitan constituency in a cosmopolitan city. 
He spelled my name at full, and more than inti- 
mated that I became a member of the Cobden Club 
because it was a 'nobleman's foreign association.' 

"I am at loss how to discriminate. I have no 
special vanity, but I suppose the applause was in- 
tended for myself as a Democrat, author, wit, 
humorist and representative (laughter), and that 
tthe laughter was at the gentleman's expense for 
associating me with noblemen — as such people run 
nowadays in and out of divorce courts in England. 

"Mr. Chairman, I am not altogether certain that 
the gentleman should be laughed at for calling me 
a nobleman. I have had some sort of a decoration 
given me by the successor of the Caliphs and the 
Sultans. But the nobility which I most admire is 
not th^t of mere title. I had almost forgotten my 
honors abroad. I did dearly yearn for the society 
of you gentlemen. (Laughter.) All the pride I 
have is to be a Commoner along with other com- 
mon iPolks here. (Applause and Laughter.) 

"I do not care even for the courteous 'Honora- 
ble^ in this House. I have an ambition to be con- 
sidered a good man and a faithful member. I 
have no special desire to be considered either 
witty, humorous, or a litterateur. Whatever the 
House or the gentleman may have meant by their 



228 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

laughter and applause, I would recommend to him 
the verse of Tennyson, where he says: 
How e'er it be, it seems to me 
'Tis only noble to be good; 
Kind hearts are more than coronets, 
And simple faith than Norman blood. 

(Cheers). 

"And certainly no one ever merited this tribute 
of the laureate of England more than Richard Cob- 
den, the yeoman's son, the friend of America, and 
the defender of just economic laws. (Cheers). 

"When the gentleman prints my name Samuel 
Sullivan Cox in the Record, he indicates something 
of my Celtic blood, but he indicates something bet- 
ter than my thought and service. 

"I beg to «ay that I accept my middle name with 
considerable pride; for among the best men of the 
Revolution from New Hampshire were the two Sul- 
livans, one of whom was governor of Massachu- 
setts and the other a general in our army. Both 
were the friends of Washington. The general was 
not only the first to wrest Fort William and Henry 
from the tory government of England, but, after 
the Revolution was over, he signalized his bravery 
and skill by suppressing the Indians 
in Central New York when they were 
allied with the Tories with which the 
gentleman is pleased to be allied. By 
ancestry, by inclination, by virtue of long service 
here, running through nearly thirty years, I never 
had one thought for or sympathy with the Tory 
leaders who sought to drive England to despera- 
tion by their protective policies. The Tories of 
New Jersey, from which state came my folk, 
were in alliance with the Hessian and the red-coat 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 229 

to drive »the patriots of the revolution into ignoble 
humiliation. They failed, but had they succeeded 
and had the Liberals of England, whom the gen- 
tleman stigmatizes, failed, we might still have 
been an English dependency, and the gentleman, 
if he had lived at all, might have been engaged in 
the constabulary force in Ireland to-day endeavor- 
ing to suppress, under the orders of Tory Balfour, 
the enfranchisement of the people of his native 
isle who are seeking for home rule. * * * ♦ 
This little esprit of the gentleman, according to 
the brackets in the Record, produced 'laughter and 
applause.' 

"It is well that the gentleman got in his laugh- 
ter first. The incident reminds me of another 
Irishman. He was in a meadow with a little 
bovine. The bovine began to paw the earth and 
tear up the ground with his horns and the Irish- 
man laughed and laughed at the unique perform- 
ance. (Laughter). But soon the little bull pitched 
him over a fence. The Irishman got up and said, 
'Isn't it lucky I got in my laugh first?' (Laughter.) 
Before I finish with the history of this club and its 
opponents and members the gentleman will be, 
perhaps, not a little astonished to know where the 
laugh comes in." 

Later in the speech he paid a glowing eulogy to 
Richard Oobden, in which he said: 

"That night of English wrong was set thick with 
sitars — a whole constellation. Cobden among 
them was shining resplendently as a star of the 
first magnitude. Oobden was not a nobleman. 
He was born of the people. He was the son of a 
yeoman. He was brought up to trade. It was his 



230 SAM CEL SULLIVAN COX 

business training, together with observation 
abroad, while a partner in a Manchester cotton 
mill, that made him so cogent in debate and so 
simple and earnest in his devotion to the cause of 
the people and to the 'cheap loaf.' 

"Mr. Chairman, I should be derelict as a member 
of Congress, or as a citizen of the United States, if 
I did not, even in it(his feeble way, vindicate the 
splendid fame of Richard Cobden. He was not 
merely a friend of the poor when they needed 
friends, but he was a distinguished economist 
when economy was thundered from the hustings 
for the relief of the starving. More than all these, 
by his speeches, writings, diplomacy, and parlia- 
mentary efforts, he has done more 'than any other 
Englishman to hold up the institutions of our own 
country, not merely for the indulgence of man- 
kind, but for their imitation and admiration. Nor 
were the enconiums which he had bestowed upon 
our country born of a mercenary or trading spirit. 
He had a genuine love for America. He twice 
visited us. He denounced those who had depre- 
ciated our character and slandered our people. 

"In a volume of his writings, which I have in my 
hand, there is a comparison between Great Britain 
and America. With what fervor he turns to the 
industrial, economical, and foreign peaceful poli- 
cies of America, while with the live coal of a seer 
on his lip he bids at distance our future, Hail! 
He does this with a pride that knows no selfish- 
ness and with a humanity that regards no isola- 
tion. England and America were, in his view, 
bound together in peaceful fetters with the strong- 
est of all ligatures that can bind two nations^ — 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 231 

commercial interests and the destiny of represen- 
tative governments. Every reform that England 
has made in the interests of her people, and for her 
colonial advancement, found Richard Oobden its 
friend, and his gifted speech its ally. And it 
comes with ill grace from an American, whether 
native or adopted, 'to blur the escutheon of this 
champion of America and this honest friend of the 
people." 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A DISCIPLE OF IZAAK WALTON. 

Protection of our fisheries was one of the multi- 
farious objects he sought through legislation. In 
a speech in the House May 12, 1884, on a bill to 
protect fish in the Potomac river, he displayed a 
wide knowledge of the entire subject. Incident- 
ally he referred to his own experience as a disciple 
of Izaak Walton. We quote: 

"I have made a pilgrimage to the tomb of Izaak 
Walton in Winchester Cathedral, and have made 
my homage to that 'grand old man' and rare old 
fisher. I found that his remains were under a large 
black slab, in a chapel in the south aisle called 
Prior Silkstead's chapel. It was evening when I 
endeavored to decipher the poetic tribute to the 
ancient angler — 'crowned with eternal bliss.' The 
cheerfulness of his disposition and the serenity of 
his mind gave to him ninety years of felicity in the 
midst of great and good and yet sportive scholars 
and churchmen. I honor him as well for his pen 
as his hook and line; for his grace of diction as for 
his genial muse and his many colored flies; and, 
above all, for that lesson of equipoise which he 
teaches in his rambles after his favorite recreation. 
He teaches the contemplative as well as sportive 
quality of the art. But if any one think that the 
literature of fishing began with Izaak Walton let 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 333 

him read classic lore. It is as full of the details 
as it is of the fun and poetry of fishing. Arion 
rides upon a fish as easily as the bold Viking darts 
out of the Norse fiord after his prey. But neither 
the classic nor romantic past has any history or 
fancy equal to the reality of our deep sea fishing 
or of our artificial reproduction. 

"I have had some experience in fishing. May I 
be pardoned if I refer to the fact that I have fished 
under the shadows of our Sierras in Tahoe, lake 
and stream; that I have followed the mountain 
rivulet Kestonica in Corsica, where the waters 
blanch the boulders into dazzling whiteness, and 
the associations of the vendetta and the Bona- 
partes give a ruddy tinge to the adventure; that I 
have caught the cod in the Arctic around Cap 
Nord, under the majestic light of the midnight 
sun; that I have angled in the clear running Ma- 
laren Saltsjon, which circulates healthfully amid 
the splendid islets of stately Stockholm, and in the 
Bosphorus, in sight of the historic Euxine and the 
marble palaces and mosques of two continents; 
that I have been tossed in shallops along with the 
jolly fishers of the Bay of Biscay; that I have had 
the honor of beholding the pillars near Iskender- 
oon in the northwest corner of the Mediterranean, 
erected by a grateful people on the spot where 
Jonah was thrown ashore by the whale; and that 
I have bounded through the league-long rollers on 
the shores of New Jersey, along with my favorite 
life-savers — to see and feel the 'bluefish wriggling 
on the hooks.' But notwithstanding these wide- 
spread endeavors, I am not prepared to say that 
there has been any perceptible diminution in the 
quantity of fishes in the waters of our star!" 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



MAN OF WIT AND WISDOM. 



One of liis Congressional eulogists said of Sam- 
uel Sullivan Cox: "He was undoubtedly a man of 
wit, and I think regretted that he was such a man ; 
but he was wise also." There is much force in this 
statement. The man of both wit and wisdom is in 
constant peril of seeing the former overshadow, in 
the popular estimation, the latter. As a rule, in a 
public orator, the wit is more eagerly waited than 
the wisdom. It was beyond question discomforting 
to Mr. Cox to discover that the wit of his discourse 
was oft remembered more vividly than its wisdom. 
That is one of the penalties all wits must suffer. 

A close study of his speeches or his writings 
will serve to show that Mr. Cox's wit was only the 
hand-maiden of his wisdom. It sprang naturally 
from the subject in hand. Never seemed it forced 
or far-fetched. It was bubble and sparkle. In 
his speeches it came usually in repartee, and under 
conditions which forbade a possibility that it 
could have been premeditated. It was as invol- 
untary as breathing. It used to be remarked by 
his Congressional colleagues that a witticism 
dropped from his mouth during a speech would 
convulse the House with laughter before he him- 
self seemed to be aware of its perpetration. Mr. 
Cox did not court, and did not relish, a reputation 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 235 

as a wit. Fain would he, if it had been possible, 
have repressed this ever-present inclination to ex- 
tract the humor from every situation. But in the 
words of one of his eulogists, Dr. Talmage, "he 
never laughed at anything except that which 
ought to be laughed at. There were in it no innu- 
endoes that tipped both ways; nothing viperine." 
We have the authority of Douglas Gerold that "it 
is better to be witty and wise than witty and oth- 
erwise." Mr. Cox had a happy combination of wit 
and wisdom. 

A significant illustration of the confidence re- 
posed in Mr. Cox by his associates in Congress, po- 
litical opponents as well as political friends, is 
alforded in the fact that Speaker Blaine, when 
charges of corruption of members by the Credit 
Mobilier filled the air, and a congressional inves 
tigation was demanded, called upon Mr. Cox to 
name the committee of investigation. Here at 
least was a member against whose personal integ- 
rity the whisper of suspicion had never been 
raised. Here was one who would be just and 
fearless in the selection of investigators of the 
damaging charges. To Mr. Cox, therefore, 
Speaker Blaine temporarily surrendered his chair, 
that he might name the committee to which repu- 
tations would be committed. 

While Hayes was President, Secretary of State 
Evarts gave a dinner in honor of President An- 
gell, of Michigan University, who had just been 
appointed Minister to China. Mr. Cox, Chairman 
of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, was 
one of the invited guests. On Secretary Evarts 
presenting to him the guest of the evening, Mr. 



236 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

Cox exclaimed, "Why! Jim Angell!" "Why! Sam 
Cox!" exclaimed President Angell in response. It 
transpired that the two had been college mates 
at Brown University a third of a century before, 
but had never meanwhile met, until this meeting 
under the roof of Secretary Evarts. 

General Eosecrans, formerly member of Con- 
gress from California, to an interviewer once re- 
lated this: "I remember one day some one on the 
other side, I forget his name, was making a strong 
pro-Chinese speech, winding up something in this 
way: "The Chinaman is clean, he is temperate, he 
is frugal, what fault have you to find with him?' 
Cox piped out: 'He wears his shirt outside of his 
breeches!' The House was crowded and that was 
the last of that orator and his Chinese speech!" 

His impressions of those then great Liberal 
leaders of the British parliament, Gladstone and 
Bright, are given in a letter from London in May, 
1881, giving an account of a visit to the House of 
Commons. "Gladstone," he wrote, "is a fluent 
easy speaker — not eloquent exactly — somewhat 
verbose and involved, with a happy audacity that, 
on party occasions, has a biting sarcasm. He looks 
somewhat like Daniel Webster about the head, 
and has much nobility of expression in his face. 
He is pale, thoughtful, and commanding, and 
never noisy. Mr. Bright is of another order, and 
reminds me somewhat of Thomas Ewing in his dig- 
nified, easy mode of stating questions." 

Brimfull as he was of humor, Mr. Cox never lost 
sight of the proprieties of the occasion. He could 
be stern as the sternest, and severe as the severest, 
when ^ernness and severity were demanded. 
Often called to preside over the deliberations of 




WASHINGTON RESIDENCE OF S. S. COX, .889, NEW HAMPSHIRE AVE. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 237 

the House, he filled the chair with exemplary dig- 
nity, and ruled sternly and impartially. A stranger 
would never Lave suspected in him the propensi- 
ties for which the people really loved him best 
The following incident is related: While Mr. 
Cox was acting speaker, during Speaker Kerr's 
illness in the Forty-Fourth Congress, charges were 
preferred against the Doorkeeper of the House. 
They were based largely on a foolish and frivolous 
letter the doorkeeper had written home to Texas, 
in which, among other things, he had said, describ- 
ing his own importance, that he was "a biger 
man than Old Grant." The charges were referred 
to the Committee on Rules, of which pro tern 
Speaker Cox was acting chairman. Mr. Cox 
wrote the report recommending the doorkeeper's 
removal. His secretary, to whom Mr. Cox showed 
his proposed report, laughingly remarked that it 
seemed curious that one who himself so loved fun, 
should condemn levity in others, the secretary add- 
ing that since Mr. Cox had been occupying the 
speaker's chair he had grown very serious and 
stern. "I know it," spoke up Mr. Cox, with a 
merry twinkle, "and if I don't get down on the 
floor pretty soon and let off steam, I'll explode." 

In addressing public audiences Mr. Cox quickly 
sized the character of those before him, and 
adapted his language, particularly his illustra- 
tions, to their grasp. No one could fail to be im- 
pressed with this fact who accompanied him on 
his rounds of meetings in his Congressional Dis- 
trict on the eve of an election. If they were Long- 
shoremen he was talking to, there was no end of 
nautical phrases and marine illustrations which 
were at his command to point his argument. And 



338 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

so all the way up the scale — his wondrous versa- 
tility enabled him to discourse to Ms hearers in a 
vernacular best suited to their intelligence. 

In his lecture on "African Humor" Mr. Cox gave 
many a convulsing illustration of his subject. 
Among others, one for which he was himself re- 
sponsible: 

"The African's religious views are peculiar. An 
old negro expressed his faith in prayer, but he 
said 'it depended on what yo' prayed for. I allays 
notice,' said this Ethiopian philosopher, 'dat when 
I pray for de Lord to send one of Massa Peyton's 
turkeys fo' de old man it don't come; but when I 
prays dat he'll send de old man fo' de turkey, my 
prayer's answered.' " J "Sunset" tells the following 
in the same connection: "I remember one occasion 
when my wife and I attended a colored meeting, 
and they were trying to raise |16.50 to repair a 
place in the ceiling of the church. After the box 
had gone round once there remained a deficiency 
of |6.87. They began to sing again and were 
about to pass the box, when my wife and I decided 
to make up what was lacking, and handed the 
amount to a colored girl in front of us, who sang 
like an angel and looked like the devil, who 
proudly marched up the aisle and deposited the 
money with the deacons. Then there was a shout 
went up from the minister: 'Lock de door and shut 
the winders. Glory hallelujah! Dere's angels 
right here among us; let's raise $ld.50 more while 
we're about it,' They meant to make the most of 
their opportunity." 

In the freedom of social intercourse, as well as 
in his private correspondence with friends, Mr. 
Cox's humor was ever bubbling, like the perennial 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 239 

spring. He was a born caricaturist, and many of 
his letters show pencilings worthy of a Nast. 

Hardly a page of his correspondence with close 
friends that was not illuminated by flashes of his 
humor. A few random shots follow: To 
a friend who was a candidate for office 
in a "Salt" district: "If you are of the elect I shall 
— I know I shall — order a gurgling cocktail, and 
put salt in all my food for a year." 

From New York in the fall of '83: "I have been 
speaking effectively — if my thorax is any index — ■ 
in New Jersey and New York. I spoke with Ab- 
bett, McClellan, et al — et al will be elected. Look 
out for his returns!" 

Referring to an impracticable proposition: 
"That would have been like the Irish mob, who 
hated a banker, and to spite him burned his 
notes!" 

In response to a challenge to go to the Adiron- 
dacks: "If you mean by going into the woods for 
a fish, I'm your Izaak Walton. I'm no Nimrod, 
and don't know him from a ramrod." 

Accompanying a pen-and-ink sketch of his party 
in a boat blue fishing: "You can see for yourself 
how we pursue the apostle's calling." 

Near the end of the Congressional session of '76: 
"We are trying to close up. I get lots of instruc- 
tion on silver — enough for a temple in Cizco, or a 
full moon!" 

Speaking of his summer outing in 1877 along the 
Jersey coast: "From Ocean Grove, where a ^Meth- 
odist whangdoodle was howling like the Dervishes 
of the East — to Long Branch where Boss Kelly re- 
posed under the red moon, as serene and gentle as 
a true man — which he is!" 



240 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX. 

Speaking of a political meeting addressed by 
him under the depressing influences of an Ohio 
defeat: "It was dull and dead; but we had a 
Sankey-monious (old) time, and the Moody fit 
passed by." 

Acknowledging in London the receipt of a for- 
warded letter: "Yours has been to Egypt — had 
Cheops for breakfast." 

From Manhattan Beach on an August day in '87: 
"I go to Sullivan county to-morrow, where I can 
catch fish and worship God like the Puritans — and 
correct proof, which was more than they did when 
they made rum out of Santa Cruz molasses." 

Writing from Fire Island in June, '77, after hav- 
ing been selected for the Long Talk at the Tam 
many celebration : "I did not expect to be selected 
for the 'Long Talk,' 4th July. But I am; and here, 
after catching blue fish till I have got over the 
blues, and black fish till Fred Douglas seems 
white, I am anchored at my 'Talk'; and as I write 
Mrs. Cox copies. It looks so much better in MS,S. 
after she copies, that I feel eloquent." 

From Boston, November 21, '79, while on a fly- 
ing lecturing tour: "I write you in Boston, under 
aesthetics! The air is redolent of the aroma of a 
refined and elegant cultchaw! But I lectured at 
Cambridge and Dartmouth, and had a full meas- 
ure of success; and brought home ten days worth 
of gab. I levy on N. E. to pay my taxes! I have 
been through N. H. from the Canada line down to 
Concord; and ran only when the starry snowflake 
filled the circumambiency, as it were." 

From Americus, Ga., in March, '77, while on a 
lecture tour, and referring to a reception at which 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 241 

Congressman Blount addressed the honored guest: 
"We (Mrs. Cox and myself) have had since we left 
Columbia a floral procession, and such times! If 
you could have been along you would recognize 
What I never understood, the ^Sunny South' in its 
kindest sense of w^hat they think is gratitude to a 
friend. Read Col. Blount's speech. It is rather 
steep, but I sweat it through." 

At the close of the sesison of Congress, in 
March, '83 : "It was a busy session for me. But am 
through it well. I send you a Washington paper. 
It has an article in it you will recognize; for it is 
mostly from one of yours; and a picture in it you 
won't recognize, for it is one of — me. Still gaze 
on it fondly for the good intentions." 

From New York September 23, '84, on learning 
of the death of a political admirer: "I am very 
sorry to hear my old friend is deceased. I re- 
member him very pleasantly. One of his odd ideas 
was — and I cannot put him down therefore as a 
crank — that I was considerable of a person and 
made a larger figure politically than I do physi- 
cally. Perhaps in a better world, where things are 
measured by other standards, he has reversed his 
opinion, and may think I am a large man physi- 
cally and otherwise not, for there must be differ- 
ent standards after the incorporealities have van- 
ished." 

On hearing of an addition to the family of a 
friend: "Mark Twain holds we were all babies 
once. I can't recall it, but I suppose it's so." 

From a lecturing tour in the South in March, '77: 
"I have lectured at Rome, Atlanta, Macon, and 
last night here, to big crowds; and really am mak- 



242 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

ing money. Think of that! The noble pursuit of 
avarice!" 

On hearing of the election of Hayes to the Gov- 
ernorship of Ohio in October in 1875: "Well, Ohio 
is gone! It makes me blue — for it makes 20 yeartj 
work and waiting a doubt; 1876 is in peril. Am 
writing a book, 'Why We Laugh?' But I don't 
feel like answering that conundrum — in politics — 
as we don't laugh." 

From New York, November 15, '76, amid the 
suspense following the disputed Presidential elec- 
tion: "We are in the mist, but the dawn is ours. 
But we won't count it till we see the peaks." 

At the opening of a Congress: "I will order the 
Congressional Globe for you daily. You can so 
live as to 'die daily.' Grace Greenwood told my 
wife that she had read the 'Globe' of one day and 
felt like a 'She Atlas' — there was such heaviness 
in its rotundity to bear up." 

From Washington, August 19, '88, in response 
to an inquiry from the agitated farmers of Pom- 
pey whether it was true that the Mills bill put po- 
tatoes on the free list: "Potatoes are not affected 
at all by the Mills bill. Put that down sure and 
salt it. They would have been affected if it were 
not for some stiff people who wanted starch, and 
starch, as you know, is made out of potatoes. The 
toothsome potato has the aegis of the government 
all over it. Every eye of the potato glistens with 
delight because it is protected." 

From W^ashington a few days later: "I am glad 
that the potato question has been settled. It was 
a terrible strain on the Committee on Census, 
ivhich organized all its forces and made a raid 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 243 

upon the Ways and Means committee room in 
order to make it an absolute verity so that Pompey 
could not sit down amid the ruins of Carthage and 
view vast potato fields grow to rot! What a ben- 
eficent government we are." 

A new member, of large girth and pretentious 
wit, from Michigan, sought on one occasion, in the 
winter of 1880, to make Mr. Cox the butt of his ridi- 
cule. He not only spoke contemptuously of the 
New York member's stature, but more than inti- 
mated that his Committee of Foreign Affairs was 
engaged mainly in manufacturing witticisms. In 
his reply Mr. Cox pointed out the important meas- 
ures which had originated in his Committee, and 
then turned his attention to the personal criticisms 
which had been hurled at him. "Why," said he, 
"should I be accused of mere play here? Have I 
not shown some fruits as the result of studious 
work? Did I not carry through here the Thurman 
bill as to railroads, the life-saving bill, the census, 
and many others which might be named? Is it 
not time to stop this constant depreciation of one 
who really cares little for being here, except to do 
something worthy ? Where is the fun in such mis- 
representation? Will my friend from Michigan 
bear with me if I give him a lesson in the matter 
of congressional debate? Humor is a large part 
of it It should be ratiocinative, however. Ic 
should have a practical object. The point is to 
make your fun dialectic and rational. * * The 
gentleman from Michigan was also pleased to re- 
fer, in a pleamnt way, to some volumes of trave I 
had written. Thankful for suc^h notice, I fear he 
has omitted the one most apposite. There is a 



244 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

volume in my desk and I will send it ito him. It is 
entitled "Why We Laugh." I send it to the gen- 
tleman with my regards, and with a view to ask 
him to regard it philosophically, "why,"— not 
"how," nor "at what" we laugh. It will show him 
that nearly all grealt natures manufactured witti- 
cisms now and then, from Sir Thomas More to 
Thomas Corwin, from Julius Caesar to the gentle- 
man. But their wit had a rational purpose. They 
were logical in their laughs. They used what 
Aristotle knew to be the reductio ad absurdum, 
and whait Whately commends as the best means of 
exposing fallacy and fraud. I wish I could read 
an extract or so before I send my friend the vol- 
ume. 

"Now, in the view of these lessons for mirth, was 
it logical for my friend the other day to call the at- 
tention of the House to my body? Suppose I am 
little, was it logical, or parliamentary, or kind to 
say it? It was done without malice, but it perme- 
ated every one of my two million pores. Suppose 
I had the gentleman's immensity of pores, where 
could not the laughter extend? Then there would 
have been need of some improvements, "because of 
a loss of moisture." Why, sir, every sweat-gland 
in my small body gave out its mortifying perspira- 
tion because they were so few compared with the 
pores and glands of larger bodies. Now, sir, 1 
submit, was my size a subjec^t for any gentleman's 
logical laughter? I never claimed, because of its 
smallness, exemption from the demands of cour- 
age or in the arena of debate. Laughter is health. 
It oils the joints and the countenance, causing it 
to shine. An animal that 'tries to laugh, like a 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 245 

hyena, is specially despised; but a babe, when it 
first beholds the sunshine, laughs! But where is 
the point of making my small person — though I 
carry the weight of the average man, one hundred 
and forty pounds — the butt of his ridicule? Why 
should smallne&s, in such an immensity of crea- 
tion, and when everything may be reduced to 
atomies, be accounted contemptible? When one 
comes to consider all universal physical relations 
— the size, say, of this dome and the goddess on it, 
much bigger, even, than the gentleman, then of the 
mounitains of our earth, then of the sun, of Jupiter, 
or the star Sirius, and then the constellations and 
systems far beyond, pinnacled dim in the intense 
inane, of creation, how contemptible a member of 
congress seems! Therefore, where or what is the 
humor of making a member of congress out to be 
little, and laughing at his size? W^hat is there to 
boast of in this enormity of flesh and size? At the 
best, Goliah did not reach more than twice as high 
and was only one-sixth more than the size of some 
gentlemen here. Lambert, vrith all his opulence 
of oil, was only a poor, weak man, unable to grasp 
what Isaac Newton knew — whose mother put him 
in a quart cup when he w^as born. Sir Isaac New- 
ton! Does the gentleman think he could get into 
such a cup? Why then, why should the spirit of 
mortal be proud? Proud flesh is not a sign of 
health. I endeavor to debate here impersonally; 
never refuse to yield ; never invade another's right ; 
always consider my person almost an abstraction. 
I am not proud of my appearance as some men are 
who swell. Why, sir, I argued against making con- 
gress too big ten years ago. Tw^o hundred and 
fifty was enough. Had I known the advent of this 



246 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

leviathan into our troubled waters, I should have 
favored two hundred as our number. But that is 
to be settled next year. Corpulency is not 
strength. Let us remember that!" 
* It is needless to add that Mr. Cox was not 
troubled again from that quarter. 

As to Mr. Cox's methodical habits, his long-time 
friend and associate in congress, Mr. Holman, of 
Indiana, said : "No man in our period equaled him 
in readiness for any question that might arise. He 
was a man of the most precise method and order. 
His desk in the House was so methodically ar- 
ranged, that even in the heat of an unexpected 
debate he could lay his hand at once on any paper 
which had been carefully laid aside for an emer- 
gency. Swift as a flash of lightning, the clipping 
from a newspaper, or a public document, or a care- 
fully preserved letter would come forth to con- 
found the incautious adversary. In those sudden 
emergencies, which have so often arisen in Con- 
gress, especially in times of public disorder in 
former years, when his party was fiercely assailed 
by ithe powerful majority, the eyes of his political 
associates always turned to Mr. Cox as one of their 
number best prepared to repel the assault." 

Of the power he wielded by his oratory, one of 
his Congressional associates, Mr. Caruth, of Ken- 
tucky, said: "What a master of oratory he was! 
I have seen the House almosit as tempestuous as 
the sea in a -storm stilled to silence by the rising of 
his form from the midst of the tumult, the lifting 
of his hand with his familiar gesture, and the ut- 
terance of Ms 'Mr. Speaker.' I have seen the busy 
men of the House drop their penis and leave their 
desks to gather about Mm that they might hear 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 247 

what he had to say. I have seen the lobbies de- 
serted, the cloak rooms emptied, even the seduc- 
tive restaurant ignored, the seats of the chamber 
filled, because 'Sunset Cox' held the floor. I have 
seen the faces which were almost distorted with 
partisan passion, in the fierce hours of political 
conflict, smoothed to pleasant humor by the poten- 
cy of his speech." 

In a like vein, General Wheeler, ("Fighting Jo") 
of Alabama, said: "His humor always did good 
and never harm. He seldom used this faculty 
merely for the purpose of amusing his audience, 
but put it into play when it was evident that, by 
so doing, a desired, and frequently a very impor- 
tant object could be attained. We all remember 
how often he quelled a storm in the House of Rep- 
resentatives by some pleasant witticism, almost 
instantly changing the scene from one of angry 
dispute to one of most pleasant hilarity. It is a 
mistake to say that this detracted in any way from 
Mr. Cox's dignity or the great esteem which was 
universally felt for him. That he would have hon- 
ored the presidency, no one who knew him would 
for a moment doubt. No one of his time was better 
equipped than he, with regard to all matters of 
government, and in general information and 
knowledge of politics and history the superiority 
of his attainments was remarkable. I doubt if 
any member of either House of Congress ever 
equalled Mr. Cox as a worker." 

Senator Voorhees, of Indiana, in his eulogy, 
related an incident illustrative of the affection 
with which ^Ir. Cox was remembered by his old 
friends in Ohio. He had been recalled to Zanes- 
ville on a sad errand— the death of his father. 



248 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"During his melancholy sojourn of a few days at 
Zanesville," said Senator Voorhees, "he concluded 
to run down to Columbus, and it so happened th.it 
Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Vallandig'ham and myself were 
on the train with him. It was not generally 
known that Mr. Cox was then in the State, and 
least of all was he expected at Columbus that day. 
When the train arrived, a concourse of people, 
with music and banners, was ait the depot to wel- 
come those of the party who were expected. All 
at once, as we emerged from the cars, an intent 
look came into every eye in that multitude, and 
then a jubilant, prolonged shout rent 'the air. The 
brilliant Buckeye was discovered by his old neigh- 
bors and constituents, and in an instant everybody 
was forgotten but him. It was his first return, 
after going out from their midst, and taking up a 
new home. He managed to get from the cars to a 
carriage, but loving hands lifted him out of it. T 
have witnessed many an ovation to popular party 
leaders, but never anything like the intense per- 
sonal devotion, affection and love, displayed on 
this occasion. The last I saw of him, many hours 
afterward, was as he stood bareheaded in the 
street, surrounded by a surging multitude of men, 
women and children, w^ho were shouting, laughing, 
crying, and clinging to him. His own eyes were 
suffused, his face was pale, and his lips trembled, 
though wreathed with smiles of rapture at his un- 
expected and wonderful welcome." 

Many another like instance mig*hlt be given, 
showing the strength of the popular affection for 
this tribune of the people. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

AS AN AUTHOR AND TRAVELER. 

With a rare gift of language were coupled in Mr. 
Oox, the ambition and the requisite energy to excel 
in the use of that gift. He wrote poetry, while in 
college, to improve his style. He allowed no op- 
portunity for improvement or advancement to go 
by. We find him, even in his college days, an ac- 
cepted contributor to the Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine, then the best of American periodicals. His 
interesting "Chapter on Fallacies," in which it was 
sought to show the influence of fallacies on morals, 
first appeared in the Knickerbocker, in 1847. In 
the same magazine, in 1851, appeared "Crossing 
the Border," a description of the borderland be- 
tween England and Scotland, with a Sunday 
morning in the old York Minster. 

In 1854, Mr. Cox, in response to the solicitation 
of thepublishers, contributed to the Knickerbocker 
Gallery, a volume of choice miscellany, the proceeds 
from whose publication were to go for the erection 
of a cottage, on the banks of the Hudson, for the 
Knickerbocker's former editor, Lewis Gaylord 
Clark. "The Satanic in Literature" was the sub- 
ject, and in it Mr. Cox recalled in his humorous 
way some of the notable shapes in which his Sa- 
tanic majesty appears in literature. 

If a man's rank is to be judged by the company 



250 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

he keeps, Mr. Oox's place in American literature 
was already, at that early day, well assured. The 
galaxy of bright and particular stars in which his 
star shone undimmed, included Irving (Whose con- 
tribution was given first place), Longfellow, Hal- 
leck, Boker, Bryant, Willis, Stoddard, Lowell, 
Holmes, Curtis, Bayard Taylor, Donald G. Mitchell. 
William H. Seward, Samuel Osgood, Epes Sargent 
and John W. Francis — now nearly all gone. 

But even before the publication of the Knick- 
erbocker Gallery, Mr. Cox had produced the first 
of his fascinating books of travel, with the title of 
"A Buckeye Abroad." It consisted of impressions 
of his trip, made after his marriage, through Eu- 
rope. 

In the preface, dated January 1, 1852, he writes, 
hoping "that it may be read as it is written, more 
for enjoyment than profit." It was not without 
S(ome profit, however, for in 1860 a seventh edition 
was issued — the best evidence of the popular favor 
with which it was received. 

Busy years of Congressional activity followed. 
It was a time for action ralther than for writing, 
and Mr. Cox's literary work took the form of writ- 
ing speeches. With the close of the Civil War, 
however, supposing his public life to be over, he 
published, in 1865, his "Eight Years in Congress." 
It was prepared at the request of his "constituents 
in Ohio," to whom the book is inscribed "as a token 
of esteem and gratitude." It consists of extracts 
from his speeches and especially those on finance 
and tariff; those that display the sedition and sec- 
tionalism of the North; those connected with ques- 
tions of fugitives from foreign lands and the right 
of asylum; those on foreign affairs; a eulogy on 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 251 

Stephen A. Douglas; speeches on matters growing 
out of secession and the war; a speech on the 
amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery, 
and on the question of admitting the Cabinet into 
Congress. 

To the student of those times the book contains 
much that is of interesit as showing the views of a 
representative citizen of the period who was not 
an extremist of either party. They are the 
thoughtful opinions of a conservative man, and 
after a lapse of thirty years, it is, to say the least, 
curious to see how nearly right, ia the light of his- 
tory, Mr. Cox was. 

In 1868, close confinement to professional 
duties, with failing health as a consequence, led 
Mr. Cox to seek recuperation in a trip to the south 
of Europe and North of Africa. His experiences 
and observations under the title of "Search for 
Winter Sunbeams on the Riviera, Corsica, Algiers, 
and Spain," were given to the public in 1870. The 
volume is dedicated to his "Constituents of the 
Sixth Congressional District of the City of New 
York." "These Sunbeams of Travel," he writes 
"were made bright by your confidence and cheer- 
ful by your indulgence; without which I could not 
have pursued them, into far and almost untrodden 
path® — ^in search of the health so needed and I 
trust, secured, for the duty which you have de- 
volved upon me." 

He spent pleasant, sunshiny days in Nice, in 
Cannes, in Hyeres, in Mentone, and in Monaco — 
that paradise of climate and beauty, and hell of 
gambling. Then crossing the blue Mediterranean 
be spent some time in Corsica, visiting the home of 



252 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

Napoleon and studying the quaint habits of the 
people of this out-of-the-way island. From Ajac- 
cio he returned to Nice and thence by steamer 
from Marseilles to Algiers. 

A new continent with its ancient civilization 
was before him, and views of Arabic, Turkish, or 
Moorish life were opened to Mm. Notwithstand- 
ing the dolce far niente of the Orient he was active 
in studying the institutions and the customs of the 
people. He tells of the quaint architecture, the 
religious ceremonies, the theatres and entertain- 
ments, and the domestic habits of the people. 
He even extends his journey to the edge of the 
great desert, passing through the valleys of Kaly- 
bes, and learning on the way the mysteries of rid- 
ing on camel-back. 

Leaving the Arabs and their decadence, he turns 
nor^thward and makes his way toward the Iberian 
peninsula, where the remains of the Moor in his 
greatness are found in such rich abundance. 

He speaks of "a ring of cities, full gemmed,'' 
in his memory, and he saw them all — Oarthagena, 
Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Grenada, Malaga, 
Seville, Toledo, Cordova, Madrid and Saragossa. 
The Alhambra of Grenada, the Alcazar of Seville, 
and the aqueduct of Cordova are among the mas- 
terpieces of architetcure that he studied and ad- 
mired. He likened to the music of the castanets 
and the guitar in Murcia, and when not occupied 
with the Cortes in Madrid, he walked the galleries 
of the Escuriel — ^the mausoleum of Spain's great- 
est heroes — looking at the rich paintings of Mur- 
illo and other famous artists of Spain, or else wit- 
nessing the bloody bull fights of the metropolis. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 253 

Malaga withits wine and its grapes, and Saragossa 
with its history appealed to him as only can a well 
digested meal to a bon viveur. He knew the 
country from his extensive reading and enjoyed it 
accordingly. 

Spain, at the time of Mr. Oox's visit had but 
recently sent her infamous Isabella across the 
frontier and under the leadership of the distin- 
guished Prim, was making her experiment with a 
Republican form of a government. Our author, 
who was in Madrid when the new Oonsititution 
was adopted, takes advantage of the occasion to 
express his views on the situation. 

At the end of two months, warned by the sum- 
mer's heat, he reluctantly left St. Sebastian, the 
last of the important railway stations in Spaiii, 
and crossed the Pyrenees into France. After a 
brief rest at Biarritz on the Bay of Biscay, with its 
health-restoring climate, he hastened to England 
and then home. 

The remarkable memory, coupled with the gen- 
ius for compilation posessed by Mr. Oox is fully 
shown in that most amusing book entitled, "Why 
We Laugh." The purpose of the work is indicated 
in the preface, which says: "The idea which 
prompted this volume was to string such humors 
as were illustrative upon some philosophic threads 
w*hich had been floating in my mind." It consists 
essentially of amusing incidents and anecdotes, 
chiefly American, grouped under various head- 
ings, and for the most part from political or legis- 
lative sources. In the chapter devoted to early 
American humor he introduces several stories that 
go back to the time of the first Congress and in- 



254 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

deed from then on, no bit of humor that was ever 
uttered in either branch of Congress seems to have 
escaped his notice. The book was so successful 
that in 1880 an entire new edition was issued to 
which Mr. Cox added a chapter descriptive of Irish 
humor. 

Of Mr. Cox's published works, the next in chro- 
nological order was a small square octavo, entit- 
led: "Free Land and Free Trade. The Lessons of 
the English Corn Laws applied to the United 
Staites." It was published in 1880. 

The shock of the financial crisis that came in 
1873, and continued during the decade that ended 
in 1880, gave rise to many discussions as to its 
causes by the thinking men of the nation. Mr. 
Cox's long experience in public matters and his 
knowledge of political conditions led him to be- 
lieve that a revision of the tariff laws was the pan- 
acea that would cure the ills resulting from finan- 
cial depression. 

His contention was that "our amazing nat- 
ural wealth is compelling us to alternatives of 
yielding the policy of selfishness (i. e. manufacture 
for home production only) or being choked with 
our own abundance," and "we cannot sell without 
buying," hence, the free entry into the country of 
raw materials was essential so that we might sell 
our manufactured products at the lowest price. 

To prove this thesis he discussed the origin and 
development of the Corn Laws in England, which, 
by the way, was the subject of his prize essay in 
the department of political economy, while he was 
a student in Brown University — and further, tak- 
ing the condition of Ireland as his text, he argued 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 255 

that free land, accompanied by free trade was nec- 
essary to produce the best results. 

His conclusions were that "the triumph of free 
land and free trade carries with it everywhere the 
blessings, and marks the boundaries of civiliza- 
tion," and finally "when that supremacy is accom- 
plished the plough will be as free as the soil, and 
the land and all the inhabitants thereof will re- 
joice in that liberty which is the exaltation of in- 
dividual and national life." 

After several years of exacting attention to his 
duties in Congress, rest and change again became 
necessary. Early in 1881, therefore, he sailed for 
another trip to the Old World. The story of his 
travels is stold in two volumes, the first of which 
he called "Arctic Sunbeams, or from Broadway to 
the Bosphorus by Way of the North Cape." It 
was published in 1882. 

The story begins with his arrival in Holland, 
whence, after studying the peculiar characteris- 
tics of the Dutch people, he goes to Denmark. At 
Copenhagen he takes the boat across the Sound to 
Malmo in Norway and is soon in Christiana. Still 
farther northward he goes and as the hot days of 
July come he is cool and comfortable within the 
Arctic circle. The most northerly point that he 
visits is North Cape, from which he looks out on 
the great North Ocean and watches the rising of 
the midnight sun. 

Thence his journey is continued south- 
ward through Lapland and Norway again to Swe- 
den. Reluctantly he leaves the Scandinavian pe- 
ninsula and crosses the Baltic to Finland. From 
Helsingfors he goes to St. Petersburg by boat, and 
he devotes much time to the attractions of the 



256 SAMUEL SULLIVAN OOX 

great capital of the north. The city of the White 
Czar has for him a fascination, and he lingers con- 
tentedly there until the time arrives to continue 
the journey southward. Moscow, with its cathe- 
drals and its memories of Napoleon, is a stopping 
point on the way to Odessa on the Black Sea; 
thence the swift steamer of the packet line takes 
him to Constantinople. 

The second volume, ''Orient Sunbeams, or from 
the Porte to the Pyramids, by way of Palestine," 
appeared in the same year as its companion. 

After the long wandering in the harsh northern 
climes, Mr. Cox was glad of the opportunity to 
spend several weeks in resting. Part of his time 
was occupied in visiting his old friend. Gen. Lew 
Wallace, then American minister to Turkey. Dur- 
ing this period he improved his opportunities by 
making excursions in the vicinity of Constanti- 
nople and in noting the changes that had occurred 
in the metropolis on the Golden Horn since his 
first visit to it, thirty years previous. Having to- 
ward the close of his stay been presented to the 
Sultan, he soon after passed through the Dardan- 
elles into the Mediterranean on his way to Smyrna. 
Short side trips were made to the classic city of 
Ephesus, to Chios, and the Isles of Greece. Then 
he journeyed southward to Damascus, with its 
vanished wonders and glories, its walls and tombs. 
Of course Jaffa, with its Biblical memories, was 
not passed by. Three chapters are devoted to 
Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Bethany, in which the 
incidents of the birth, death and ascension of our 
Lord, as related in Holy Writ, are recalled. The 
pleasant days of the late autumn are devoted to 
a brief visit to Egypt. In a week, all too short, he 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 257 

travels from Alexandria to Cairo — the pyramids, 
the Sphynx, and the tombs of the oldest civiliza- 
tion that the world nov^r knows, are visited. And 
so the journey ends. 

These two volumes, word pictures, together con- 
stitute a series of entertaining, thoughtful and 
agreeable sketches of the interesting and historic 
places visited. 

In 1883 there was issued from Washington a 
series of seven "Memorial Eulogies delivered in 
theHouseof Kepresentaitives of the United States by 
Samuel S. Cox, member from Ohio and New York, 
1861-1883." These addresses formed an octavo vol- 
ume of 86 pages, which was illustrated with en- 
graved portraits on steel of the distinguished 
statesmen eulogized. The group included the rec- 
ords of men famous in the history of our country. 
The first, delivered in 1861, was on Stephen A. 
Douglas, the great leader of his party in the Pres- 
idential canvass that preceded the Civil War, and 
who died just as the new administration which his 
followers had hoped would be his own, was inau- 
gurated. This was followed by an address on Sam- 
uel Finley Breeze Morse, who, persistent in his 
faith in the new science of electricity, overcame 
all obstacles until the electric message made com- 
munication between continents instantaneous. 

Then came eulogies on two friends who were 
near and dear to him. The first was on Michael 
C. Kerr, a member of the House of Kepresentatives 
from Indiana, and who for a short time served as 
speaker of the House. The other was on Julian 
Hartridge, a member from Georgia and a friend 
of his college days in Brown. 

Mr. Cox was for many years a regent of the 



258 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

Smithsonian Institution, and in its development 
he took the greatest interest. It was therefore 
eminently fitting that the memorial address in 
Congress on Joseph Henry, its first Secretary, 
jshould be delivered by one whose friendship for 
science led to his close association with the Smith- 
sonian. He told of Henry how "with unblemished 
eye, like the eagle, his scientific ken gazed into the 
sun itself for its revelation; and yet he nestled, 
dove-like, amidst his human domestic affections," 
and that "his processes of thought were chastened 
by his Christ-like life and heavenly faith; and he 
has his reward in eternal bliss." 

The next eulogy is on George S. Houston, a Rep- 
resentative from Alabama and long chairman of 
the Committee on Ways and Means. Last of all in 
this brief collection is a splendid eulogy of that 
eloquent Georgian and Senator, Benjamin H. Hill, 
whose magnificent courage in continuing at his 
post when overcome by a fatal disease gained for 
him the homage of his countrymen. 

The next book from the pen of Mr. Cox was an 
important contribution to the history of his time, 
entitled "Three Decades of Federal Legislation, 
1855 to 1885." In this elaborate volume he re- 
calls and reviews the memorable events preced- 
ing, during and since, the American Civil War, in- 
volving slavery and secession, emancipation and 
reconstruction, with sketches of prominent actors 
during these periods. The book is a large octavo 
volume of 725 pages. 

The Eepublican party came into existence in 
Pittsburg in 1855, and Mr. Cox was first elected to 
Congress the year after. The first of his three 
"decades" is therefore that from 1855 to 1865, and 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 259 

includes the history of the events that led to the 
organization of the Republican party, together 
with a succinct account of the Civil War. 

The second decade deals chiefly with the period 
of reconstruction and carries the reader from the 
death of the martyred Lincoln in 1865 to the begin- 
ning of the Centennial year, 1876. The outrages of 
the Ku-Klux-Klan and the abuse of power by the 
government formed in the Southern states by 
Northern adventurers, receive full consideration 
in his discussion of the events of this period. 

The final decade deals especially with the re- 
sults of reconstruction, closing with the beginning 
of a Democratic administration under Cleveland. 
The resumption of specie payments, the great cen- 
sus of 1880, and the initiation of civil service re- 
form, are the leading issues that come under his 
review. 

During nearly all of the time covered by the 
events described in this book Mr. Cox was active 
in public life. It was his fortune to mingle with 
public men of every shade of opinion, " men " as 
he himself says, "in every variety of public and 
private employment and every quality and grade 
of character." From these and from "decrees of 
state, and even the 'columns of the sepulchers,' as 
well as from the controversies of contending par- 
ties," he gathered the material from which he pre- 
pared this most valuable history. 

Throughout his public career, Mr. Cox, as his 
ancestors for two generations before him, never 
changed his first unwavering trust in the princi- 
ples of that party of which he was so able a rep- 
resentative, and throughout the book he endeavors 
to show and emphasize that which he says "he 



260 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

never ceased to believe," and which in 1885, as the 
book came from the press, seemed almost to be 
realized, namely, "that the party of constitutional 
limits, strict construction, state sovereignty, and 
federal unity would be found indispensable in the 
end to honest and united government." And fin- 
ally he adds: "As this strange eventful period of 
history is concluding, that party is reascending to 
political prominence, by the inauguration of its 
recently elected chief magistrate, purified by the 
ordeal fires which only added to its invincible 
strength." 

It will be remembered that with the advent of 
Mr. Cleveland's administration, Mr. Cox was ten- 
dered the diplomatic mission to Turkey. This honor 
he accepted and for two years Constantinople was 
his official home. 

On his return to the United S,tates, his ever 
facile pen found congenial employment in writing 
the "Diversions of a Diplomat." This work, which 
he dedicated by permission "To His Majesty Ab- 
dul Hamid IL," was published in New York in 
1887 and covered 685 pages. 

It is simply the written record of his impres- 
sions accompanied by pertinent comments and ex- 
planations. He tells of his journey to Constan- 
tinople, his reception by the Sultan, the social life 
of the Turks and their diplomatic conditions. The 
histoiy of the Ottoman Empire — its origin and 
development — the various race influences that 
have brought it to its present condition, the many 
religions, including, of course, the Moslem, the 
Greek, the Armenian, and the work of the Ameri- 
can Protestant Missions, the Turkish language 
and literature, its wit and humor, as well as the 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 261 

stories of the East, or fables which are transmitted 
from father to son, the life of the people, their di- 
versions and pleasures, and their home life, in- 
cluding the education of children and the secrets 
of the harem ; all these and still others are among 
the fruitful themes which he presents for the ben- 
efit of his reader. 

He enters also into a philosophic discussion of 
the political conditions of the Balkan peninsula,, 
the growth of Bulgaria, Servia, Roumania, and 
other vassal states, the influence of Russia, and 
the ultimate fate of Turkey. These problems are 
discussed with the ripe knowledge of an experi- 
enced diplomat. 

As a supplement to the "Diversions" last named 
Mr. Ck)x wrote "The Isles of the Princes; or the 
Pleasures of Prinkipo," recording a summer's ex- 
perience among the Princes Isles, in the old Pro- 
pontis. 

"These Isles of the Princes," writes Mr. Cox, "lie 
in sight of Stamboul and its splendors, and of the 
Mountains of Asia, dominated by the Myseau 
Olympus. They are glorious in physical loveli- 
ness. They are still the 'Isles of Greece', although 
under Ottoman rule. Out of their blue waters, at 
morn and eve, the beauty of the Grecian myth 
arises, to grace the isles with her smiles. Upon 
them burn 'the larger constellations.' They are 
fitly named 'Isles of Princes.' Upon them the pal- 
aces of the princes of old Byzantium were erected. 
Here, too, were their monasteries and prisons. 
The relics of these lines of civil and eclesiastical 
empire are nearly all faded; but the monasteries 
of the orthodox Greek church still hold here their 



262 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

eminences, as well by virtue of their antique titles 
as by their superb situaJtions." 

Here, amid such surroundings, he spent the sum- 
mer of 1886, and his book is a simple story of his 
excursions in and around these islands, as well as 
to adjacent places in Asia and Europe. 

Like some of his earlier works, this volume bear& 
a dedication. Mentioning that "it recalls our 
pleasant sojourn in those classic isles and the 
many courtesies bestown upon us — 'strangers in a 
strange land,'" — he adds: "It is fit that to you, 
my dear wife, I should dedicate this volume, for if 
we have achieved any measure of success, socially 
or otherwise, in our island home, may I not say 
that it is due to those qualities of kindness and 
complaisance which you possess, and which 
have made our lives one in an ever increasing cir- 
cle of felicity?" 

In his tribute to the memory of Mr. Cox, Repre- 
sentative James O'Donnell, of Michigan, aptly an- 
alyzed his literary work as follows: 

"All his books are interesting and instructive; 
his writings are entertaining, giving strength and 
knowledge. His industry, information and dis- 
crimination are apparent upon every page, and 
the clear, compact, and intelligent treatment of all 
questions, is observed in each chapter. He had 
the happy faculty of saying things in a striking 
way, and most of his publications are the product 
of conscientious study and research. The reader 
can not but note the admirable trea;tment of his 
themes, disitinguished by a classic simplicity and 
lucidity, clear and graceful, denoting the intellect 
of the author, strong and full of creating force. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 263 

His historical works illustrate the experience and 
learning that embellish every page; the events 
narrated are excellently concentrated and con- 
densed, and the author established himself as a 
clear and vigorous writer and thinker, delighting 
all with his extensive culture, discernment, and 
superior taste. His latest volumes exhibit the 
same polish, breadth, and thoroughness of prepar- 
ation; the advancing years of the author show no 
deterioration in happy expression, terseness, and 
reliable statement. He exemplifies the saying of 
Milton, 'a good book is the precious life-blood of a 
master spirit embalmed and treasured up to a life 
beyond.' In several of his works there is a glow- 
ing style and general admixture of humor coupled 
with profound truths semi-humorously expressed. 
His name will have an honorable place in Ameri- 
can literature." 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



HIS DEATH AND FUNERAL. 



Mr. Cox returned to New York from Manhattan 
Beach a sick man. He failed rapidly to the end. 
His death occurred at half past eight o'clock on 
the evening of September 10, 1889 — twenty days 
before he would have completed his sixty-fifth 
year. At that very hour he had engaged to deliver 
an address before the Steckler association on the 
"Wonderland" — meaning the Great West from 
which he had recently returned. It was another 
and a greater Wonderland to which he had gone. 
He passed away as one falling into a gentle sleep. 
Few knew of his illness until informed of its fatal 
termination. The sad intelligence as it sped with 
lightning rapidity throughout the great city and 
the country caused everywhere sincere mourning. 
From every quarter came expressions of tender 
sj'^mpathy for the stricken partner of the life that 
had gone out. Among the many came messages 
of condolence from ex-President Cleveland, Vice- 
President Morton, Gen. Sherman and Gov. Hill. 
Ex-President Cleveland w^rote: 

"On my arrival at home yesterday after an ex- 
tended absence, I was shocked to learn of the 
death of your husband. I cannot refrain from the 
expression of my deep and sincere sympathy with 
you in your great bereavement, and my feeling of 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 265 

personal sadness upon the loss of a talented friend. 
Your husband's honorable career and the tribute 
which his fellow countrymen will pay to his useful 
life will not lessen the poignancy of your afflic- 
tion." 

The funeral was under the direction of the ser- 
geant-at-arms of the House of Eepresentatives, 
and the following members were named to take 
charge of the arrangements, to-wit: Messrs. Car- 
lisle, Randall, Holman, Felix Campbell, Seney, 
Heard, Muehler, Kelly, McKinley, Cannon, Reed, 
Burrows and O'Neil. The honorary bearers were 
Vice-President Levi P. Morton, ex-President Cleve- 
land, Gen. W. T. Sherman, ex-Gov. Hoadley of 
Ohio, Sumner I. Kimball, Superintendent of the 
Life Saving Service, Col. John A. Cockerill, ex- 
Chief Justice Charles P. Daly, John T. Agnew, Ed- 
ward Cahill and Douglas Taylor of New York, S, 
H. Kauffmann of Washington, and Milton H. Nor- 
thrup of Syracuse. 

The last rites were on September 13, in the First 
Presbyterian church, Fifth avenue and Twelfth 
street. The profusion of floral tributes from Let- 
ter Carriers and life saving stations attested the 
affection in which the deceased statesman was 
held. From the New York city Letter Carriers 
came a mammoth "Gates Ajar," and a large floral 
envelope, with "Our Champion" acrosss the face, 
and, in the form of a post mark in the upper right 
hand corner, "New York, 9-10-89, 8:30 p. m."— the 
day and hour of his death. Brooklyn sent a scroll 
of roses and violets, inscribed "S. S. Cox, cham- 
pion." Philadelphia's floral expression was "1824, 
Farewell, 1889. He was our best friend." The 
Boston Carriers, by their offering, also testified. 



266 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

"Our Friend." The Life Saving Service was rep- 
resented by a life belt and muffled oar — on the 
belt the words "Our Champion." 

The services were conducted by the blind chap- 
lain of the House of Representatives, Rev. Dr. W. 
H. Milburn, Rev. Dr. Deems, of the Church of the 
Strangers, and Rev. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage, of 
the Brooklyn Tabernacle. 

No story of Mr. Cox's life would be complete 
without a reproduction, at least in part, of the dis- 
criminating eulogies pronounced over his bier by 
Reverends Dr. Milburn and Talmage. Extracts 
therefrom follow: 

(Prom Rev. Dr. Milburn's Eulogy.) 

Samuel Sullivan Cox, the humorist, the writer, 
the speaker, a servant of the people, an ofiftcer of 
the state, a most human-hearted man, has left us, 
and we, the city, the nation, are 'the poorer for his 
going. There was in him a vein of admirable wit 
united to an excellent understanding and a rare 
power of sympathetic speech, and these, with an 
indefatigablel industry and dauntless lenergy and 
courage, early in life brought him to the front, and 
throughout his days kept him there, in a position 
of influence and power to which he was fully en- 
titled. The country can ill-afford to spare, in 
what should have been the maturity of his man- 
hood, one so richly endowed by nature, labor, large 
and varied experience, whose soul was wedded to 
its honor, and to the happiness, interest, and wel- 
fare of his fellow men. As his friends, we mourn 
our irreparable loss, while the whole land sorrows 
for the departure of one of its most faithful, val- 
iant and devoted sons. 

Sprung from a brave old Revolutionary stock, 




COX'S RESIDENCE ON TWELFTH STREET, NEW YORK, IN WHICH HE DIED. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 267 

bom in Ohio, one of a family of fourteen children, 
taught from his earliest days to work with persist- 
ence and energy, he gained a university education 
as the fruit of his own toil, and then enlarged his 
mind and quickened his sympathies by wide travel 
making acquaintance with many climates, cities, 
of men, and governments, and thus prepared him- 
self for the work he was to do. He first tried his 
hand as a writer for the newspaper press and also 
as the author of a book of travels, but soon entered 
the Capitol of the nation as a member of the House 
of Representatives, where his brilliant parts at 
once gained him distinction. 

Throughout his congressional career of nearly 
thirty ears, he secured and maintained to the last 
the kindly regard, the warm admiration, and per- 
sonal friendship not only of his political associates 
but of the members on the other side of the floor, 
and in the bead-roll of his friends and admirers 
there will be found as many opponents as members 
of his own party. Trenchant and powerful in de- 
bate, he used the weapons of research, clear state- 
ment, argument, keen wit, and an ever-present 
humor, and wherever he inflicted wounds they 
were always salved by kindness and mirth, and all 
canker was removed. 

Earnest in his political convictions and ardent 
in their advocacy, he was ye^t more earnest and ar- 
dent in matters outside of politics that concerned 
the happiness of his fellow men. Notable illus- 
trations of this are found in our Life Saving Ser- 
vice, of which he may be said to be the father, and 
in his championship of the cause of the hard- 
worked and underpaid clerks and carriers of the 



268 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

postal service. His best and highest public utter- 
ances, which had the whole force of his character 
in them, were in behalf of a larger toleration, a 
sweeter and more practical humanity. 

When one reviews his work in Congress, and 
knows the immense labors he performed there, in 
tJie profound study of all questions vital to the 
nation's welfare, in committees, on the floor, and 
at the Departments, it would seem enough to tax 
any man's utmost strength and fill his whole time; 
yet such was his unwearied industry and elasitic 
energy, that he managed to write book after book 
which have instructed and delighted great bodies 
of readers by their intelligence, vivacity, their wis- 
dom, humor and wit. 

I must leave it to others, to his colleagues in 
Congress, to speak of his political services and the 
debt of gratitude the country owes his memory. 
This place is sacred to -tJhe consideration of charac- 
ter. How did he use those extraordinary talents 
which he possessed? Were they for himself su- 
premely? A less selfish man than Samuel Sulli- 
van Cox has never appeared in the political life 
of, his country. Ho had a large heart, tender sym- 
pathies, a kind appreciation, and a power to inter- 
pret ithe character of all wifh whom he came in 
contact. Noble as was his head, his heart was 
still nobler; and throughout his career he strove to 
help, to cheer, to befriend those who were in need 
of his friendship. There was a light in his eye, a 
music in his voice, a grasp in the hand, a cheerful- 
ness of speech, a heartiness of manner, which lift- 
ed burdens from the shoulders of those who came 
near him. His honor was unstained. Although 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 269 

he was connected with the politics of this city and 
of the country in their darkest hours, when corrup- 
tion ran riot and the infamous scramble for place 
and pelf was common, the pitch never defiled him, 
his good name was never assailed even by the 
tongue of scandal. He bore himself with a lof1;y 
rectitude; his integrity was incorruptible. 

Amid the dance of society, the roar of business, 
the greed for ofl&ce and money, we pause beside 
this coffin in the stillness of this sacred place to 
recall the form and features of one whose nature 
was large enough to offer the generous hospitality 
of recognition and sympathy to all sorts and con- 
ditions of men, whether they were Roman Catholic 
or Protestant, Jew or Mohammedan; and who in 
the battle of life ever struck with all his might for 
the cause of the true, the right, the good. One 
who knew him best has assured me that his piety 
towards God was as genuine, deep, and reverent 
as his charity towards his fellow men was large, 
unaffected and fervent. He drew the inspiration 
of his conduct and character from the truths and 
faith of our holy religion. 

This man bore himself to the age of three-score 
years and five, not only untainted by the world, 
but unworried with it. No frown of discontent, 
no scowl of misanthropy, was ever seen upon his 
brow; no complaint of the emptiness of the world 
or of its vanity was prompted by that cheery 
heart. He wrought for the welfare of others, and 
in so doing found his own, for love is its own ex- 
ceeding great reward. 

(Prom Rev. Dr. Talmage^s Address.) 
^'The nation weeps. What a wide, deep, awful 



270 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

vacuum the departure of such a man as Samuel S. 
Cox leaves in the world ! We shall not see his like 
again. It will be useless to try to describe to an- 
other generation who or what he was like. He was 
the first and the last of that kind of man. He was 
without predecessor and will be without suc- 
cessor. What a genial, gracious, magnificent soul 
he was! And every year he lived made to the 
world a new revelation of his admirable qualities. 
Within the past few weeks I traveled in his wake 
across the American continent, and I heard every- 
where of the ovations he had received and the 
superb impressions he had made, cities and terri- 
tories and states casting their crowns at his feet. 

"And while these tempests are raging on land 
and sea and the life-saving stations have rescued, 
within a few hours, the crews of thirty ships, we 
are called upon to perform the last office over the 
body of him who was the chief champion of that 
national benevolence for which every sailor on the 
seas feels thankful. 

"And was there ever a truer friend? Tell me, ye 
who live in the high places of the earth, and the 
poor who last night, while his body lay in state, 
wept over this casket! There is hardly any one 
here to whom he has not done a kindness. 

"Did he not speak for you a good word or write 
a generous commendation or give you the smile of 
encouragement in some exigency? How many 
people he helped; how many perplexities he dis 
entangled ; how many bright utterances he strewed 
in the pathway of dthers, no one can remember 
save God who remembers all. 

"Firm as a rock, brilliant as a star, artless as a 
child, pure as a woman. God endowed him for a 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 271 

good purpose with a resiliency of wit, a faculty of 
impersonation, and an irresistible mimicry and a 
dramatic power that were inexhaustible. How 
much the world owes to such a nature we can not 
tell. It is often a greater good to cause a laugh 
than to start a tear. We all cry enough, God 
knows, and have enough to cry about, and we need 
no impulse in that direction. But he who can 
scatter our gloom by innocent merriment has been 
to us an emancipator. Solomon was right when he 
said, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." 
Wit is of two kinds, that which stings and galls 
and angers and makes the eye flash and the heart 
burn; the other is that which illumines, sets free, 
strengthens for another contest, puts us in good 
humor with the world and makes us renounce our 
follies. The one kind of wit is the lightning that 
rives, but the other is the dew that refreshes. Of 
that last kind was the wit of our departed friend. 
"He never laughed at anything except that 
which ought to be laughed at. There were in it no 
innuendos that tipped both ways; nothing viper- 
ine; nothing that would have been discordant to 
recall if he had died the next hour. Prince of in- 
nocent pleasantry, sanctified reparteeist, our 
friend shall live in our memories like a sweet song 
too soon closed, like a banquet too soon ended, like 
a picture over which too soon the veil has 
dropped." 

On October 10, just a month from the date of 
his death, the great hall of Cooper Union, New 
York, wa« filled with citizens of the metropolis, 
gathered to do honor to the memory of Samuel 
Sullivan Cox. The meeting was under the auspices 



272 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

of the Steckler Association, before which body, it 
will be remembered, Mr. Cox had engaged to de- 
liver an address on "Wonderland" at the very 
hour of his death. Julius Harburger, president 
of the Steckler Association, called the great me- 
morial meeting to order, and on his motion Hon. 
Grover Cleveland, ex-President of the United 
States, was chosen to preside. The ex-President, 
on taking the chair, paid an appreciative tribute 
to the character and services of the deceased, who 
had, he said, "exhibited to the entire country the 
strength and the brightness of true American 
statesmanship." The chief addressi was given by 
Hon. J. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, long associ- 
ated with Mr. Cox in Congress. "The name of no 
man," said Mr. Knott, "was ever more widely 
known or more lovingly revered among his coun- 
trymen than his. It has been heard wherever the 
language of civilized men is spoken. There is 
scarcely a home in all this wide and wondrous 
land, whether amid the busy haunts of the crowd- 
ed city or in the solitudes of the far-off mountains, 
in which it is not a familiar household word." 
Mr. Knott's review of the memorable career of his 
late associate in CongTess, was singularly elo- 
quent, analytical and to the last degree just. 

Congress paid notable tribute to Mr. Cox's mem- 
ory. Formal announcement of his death was 
made to th^ House by Representative Amos J. 
Cummings, on the 18th of December, and a resolu- 
tion was adopted expressive of the "deep regret 
and profound sorrow" with which the intelligence 
was received. As a further mark of respect the 
House at once adjourned. Saturday, April 19, 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 273 

1890, was set apart for paying tribute to the mem- 
ory of the deceased statesman. On like occasions 
the galleries and floors of Congress ordinarily pre- 
sent a beggarly array of empity benches. But on 
this day there were no vacant seats. The public 
anticipation that this was to be no idle formality 
but a heartfelt '^recognition of eminent abilities 
as a distinguished public servant" — in the words 
of the resolution adopted — was realized. The eul- 
ogies that came from the lips of the most distin- 
guished members of both political par- 
ties, were earnest and eloquent to a 
degree never surpassed in that historic 
chamber. Representative Cummings, who gave a 
most interesting and appreciative review of Mr. 
Cox's eminent career, was followed by Gen. Banks, 
of Massachusetts; Roger Q. Mills, of Texas; Ben 
Butterworth, of Ohio; Col Breckenridge, of Ken- 
tucky; Richard P. Bland, of Missouri; Buckalew, 
of Pennsylvania; Benton H. McMillan, of Tennes- 
see; Col. Grosvenor, of Ohio; Outhwaithe, of Ohio; 
Lawler, of Illinois; Bunnell, of Minnesota; Mc- 
Adoo, of New Jersey; Chipman, of Michigan; Cov- 
ert, of New York; Stone, of Missouri; O'Donnell, 
of Michigan; Carruth, of Kentucky; Washington, 
of Tennessee; Maish, of Pennsylvania; ''Fighting 
Jo" Wheeler, of Alabama; Yoder, of Ohio; Quinn. 
of New York; McClammy, of North Carolina; Tur- 
ner, of New York; Hansbrough, of North Dakota; 
McCarthy, of New York; Sherman, of New York; 
Morrow, of Californa; and Geisshamer, of New 
Jersey. Together these tributes constitute a not- 
able volume. 

Memorial day in the Senate was July 8, 1890. 



274 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

Tlie resolutions of the House having been report- 
ed, Senator Hiscock, of New York, offered resolu- 
tions w*hich were adopted, expressive of the Sen- 
ate's "profound sorrovs^," and suspending business 
to give opportunity for "fitting tributes to the 
memory of the deceased, and to his eminent public 
and private virtues." Eulogies no less earnest 
and eloquent than those which fell from the lips of 
the deceased statesman's own colleagues, of the 
House, were made, to a full Senate and overflow- 
ing galleries, by Senators Hiscock and Evarts, of 
New York; Voorhees, of Indiana; Sherman, of 
Ohio; Vest, of Missouri; and Dixon, of Rhode 
Island. 

All concurred in recognizing the super-eminence 
of his ability as an orator and statesman, his mas- 
terly grasp of all public questions, and his invalu- 
able services to his country. With the Reverend 
Doctor Talmage, they said : "We shall not see his 
like again. Without a predecessor, he will be 
without a successor." This, we believe, is likely 
to stand as the judgment of history. 



APPEHDIX. 



Laws Affecting Letter Carriers Enacted through 
Efforts of S. S. Cox. 



THE ANNUAL VACATION LAW. 

Chap. 126. An Act to grant letter carriers at 
free delivery offices fifteen days leave of absence 
in each year. 

Be it enacted, etc. That all letter carriers at free 
delivery offices shall be entitled to leave of absence 
not to exceed fifteen days in each year, without 
loss of pay; and the Postmaster General is hereby 
authorized to employ, when necessary, during the 
time such leave of absence is granted, such num- 
ber of substitute-cariers as may be deemed advis- 
able, who shall be paid for services rendered at the 
rate of six hundred dollars per annum. 
[June 27, 1884.] 

THE "fixed salary" LAW. 

Chap. 14. An Act to extend the free delivery 
system of the Postoffice Department, and for other 
purposes. 

Be it enacted, etc. That letter carriers shall be 
employed for the free delivery of mail matter, as 



276 SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 

frequently as the public business may require, at 
every incorporated city, village, or borough con- 
taining a population of fifty thousand within its 
corporate limits, and may be so employed at every 
place containing a population of not less than ten 
thousand, within its corporate limits, according to 
the lasit general census, taken by authority of 
State or United States law, or at any postofflce 
which produced a gross revenue, for the preceding 
fiscal year, of not less than ten thousand dollars: 

Provided, this act shall not affect the existence 
of the free delivery in places where it is now estab- 
lished. And provided further, 

That in offices where the free delivery shall be 
established under the provisions of this act, such 
free delivery shall not be abolished by reason of 
decrease below ten thousand in population or ten 
thousand dollars in gross postal revenue, except in 
the discretion of the Postmaster General. 

Sec. 2. That there may be in all cities which 
contain a population of seventy-five thousand or 
more three classes of letter carriers, as follows: 
Carriers of the first class, whose salaries shall be 
one thousand dollars per annum; of the second 
class, whose salaries shall be eight hundred dol- 
lars per annum, and of the third class, whose sal- 
aries shall be six hundred dollars per annum. 

Sec. 3. That in places containing a population 
of less than seventy-five thousand there may be 
two classes of letter carriers, as follows: Carriers 
of the second class, whose salaries shall be eight 
hundred and fifty dollars per annum, and of the 
third class, whose salaries shall be six hundred 
dollars per annum. 




GICO. T ESTES, LVXN, MASS. 
Oldest Letter Carrier (from 1864) in the Service. 



SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX 277 

Sec. 4. That all laws inconsistent herewith are 
hereby repealed. 

[January 3, 1887.] 

THE "bight hour" LAW. 

Chap. 308. An Act to limit the hours that letter 
carriers in cities shall be employed per day. 

Be it enacted, etc. That hereafter eight hours 
shall constitute a day's work for the letter carriers 
in cities or postal districts connected therewith, 
for which they shall receive the same pay as is now 
paid as for a day's work of a greater number of 
hours. If any letter carrier is employed a greater 
number of hours per day than eight he shall be 
paid extra for the same in proportion to the salary 
now fixed by law. 

[May 28, 1888.] 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Ancestry 9 

Boyhood 29 

College Life 40 

Choosing a Career 61 

His Marriage and Trip to Europe 67 

As An Editor 70 

Enters the Arena of Politics 76 

Elected to Congress 78 

Eight Years an Ohio Kepresentative 80 

Removal to New York 96 

Returns to Congress 98 

Race for Congressman-at-large 102 

Spurns the "Back Pay" 106 

Again Returns to Congress 108 

From North Cape to the Pyramids 114 

Again at His Post 126 

As Minister to Turkey 128 

A Retrospect 153 

Mr. Cox and the Electoral Commission 159 

"Free Cuba" 163 

Our Debt to Ireland 17.2 

The Persecuted Jews 177 

Champion of American Commerce 181 

"The Letter Carriers' Friend" 185 



280 CONTENTS. 

Father of the Life-Saving Service 201 

^'Four New Stars" 217 

Old Campaigning Days in Ohio 223 

Member of the Cobden Club 226 

A Disciple of Izaak Walton 232 

"Man of Wit and Wisdom" 234 

A® an Author and Traveler 249 

His Death and Burial 264 

Appendix: "Letter Carrier" Laws 275 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FACING 

Samuel Sullivan Cox, frontispiece. page 

General James Cox 10 

"Box Grove" 16 

Judge and Mrs. Samuel Sullivan 22 

Maria Matilda Sullivan Cox 26 

Cox's Boyhood Home 30 

Muskingum Cour^t House 31 

E. T. Cox, wife and ten children 38 

First paper mill West of Alleganies 46 

Buckingham Mansion, Zanesville 66 

Cox's first Columbus residence 74 

Dr. Heni*y Bennett in his garden, Mentone. ... 98 

North Gape group 114 

U. S. Legation on the Bosphorus 134 

Mehemet, Cox's Turkish guard 138 

Nile party, a cosmopolitan group 142 

Decorations conferred by theSultan 146 

Five photographs at different periods 156 

Little Ethel Sullivan. 186 

Cox statue, Astor Place 192 

Group of Officers, N. A. L. C 194 

A Life Saving Station 202 

Vase presented to Mrs. Cox 210 

Supt Kimball of Life-Saving service 214 

Cox's Washington residence 236 

His New York residence 266 

His tomb 274 

Oldest Letter Carrier Appendix 



3i^77-2 



